Located in New South Wales’ Blue Mountains, in the area from Wentworth Falls to Glenbrook, on the south side of the Great Western Highway, their property is “a spiritual retreat centre especially designed for people to come away for silence and solitude, inspired by Jesus’ invitation “Come away to a quiet place and rest a while”.

Eternity asked Donna if battling the bushfires felt spiritual to her, given the property’s purpose?

“Yes, it did,” she replied. “But I also felt it was being defended for us, because it was so special. And the firies sometimes made a comment about how the wind kept changing now and then and how it didn’t make sense to them but that it was helping.”

“I just smiled. This is sacred land, the Aboriginal paintings in the cave mean it was a meeting place for spiritual purposes, so we are just bringing the land back to its original purpose. Thanks to God, we felt protected and were.”

Postscript, from Donna:

Also, I carried these in my pocket – prayer beads given to me by an Iraqi man the night before the bombing started in Baghdad in 2003. They were his own personal prayer beads and he wanted to give them to me to have during the bombing, which I indeed did, and I have carried them with me many times to places of danger around the world. As soon as things looked hairy on Friday night, I went looking for them and kept them in my pocket all night.