A light in the distance: Danielle's Easter story
24 February 2026
“If you look into the distance, there’s a house upon the hill, guiding like a lighthouse...” Danielle says these words from a song, Leave a Light On by Tom Walker, capture what she felt when she found hope at The Salvation Army’s Brisbane Recovery Services, also known as Moonyah.
This Easter, Danielle shares her story of faith and of the people and services that helped shape her life.
Today, at 33, supporting and caring for others has become a passion for Danielle. As a victim-survivor of domestic violence, she has used the pain from her own life to encourage others, regularly sharing her story of transformation and faith at Salvation Army events, recovery gatherings and in one-on-one conversations.
Her story of God’s faithfulness includes Moonyah, which played a pivotal part in her recovery, as well as God’s Sports Arena (GSA) — a unique Salvation Army church and faith-based connection space. It also includes the many people who walked alongside her and helped guide her towards hope.
Danielle lives in Brisbane with her partner Clayton and their two children. She is a full-time mum and the full-time carer and advocate for her son, who lives with disability.
She and her family worship at a Salvos church and, despite some challenges, it is a full and happy life she once believed was completely out of reach.
This Easter, Danielle says everything she has today comes back to one thing — the steadfast, unshakeable love of God through Jesus.
A childhood shaped by trauma
Danielle grew up in Queensland in a home marked by instability, neglect and addiction. God was not part of her childhood. From a young age, she experienced severe trauma, living without safety, care or protection.
By her mid-teens, the cumulative weight of loss had already taken a devastating toll on her family. When she was 15, her older sister died after battling addiction, trying to cope with the same trauma Danielle had experienced.
Her sister had given her some sense of protection, and Danielle says, “When that happened, everything fell apart. I lost my way.”
She was soon out of home, disconnected from school and surrounded by older people who offered little protection and much manipulation. Looking for comfort, Danielle turned to drugs, sparking an addiction that would take hold of her life for almost a decade.
Addiction takes hold
At 19, Danielle entered a relationship with an older man, seeking protection and security. Instead, she says, “Domestic violence, abuse and torture are the only ways I can describe that relationship.” Ten years ago, Danielle — now a domestic violence victim-survivor — nearly died after being stabbed.
By then, drugs consumed her life every day. She worked hard, but only to support her addiction. There were drug-related crimes, court appearances and probation orders. Survival, not hope, shaped her decisions.
“This part of my life was incredibly lonely,” she says.
Despair leads to search for addiction support
Eventually, desperation drove Danielle to beg a drug addiction support charity for help. It was there she first heard about The Salvation Army Moonyah, a word in Bundjalung language meaning ‘a safe place’.
It would become exactly that for Danielle — but not immediately. She detoxed, entered the long-term program and left after just three days. Fear of recovery, confronting trauma and being in a faith-based service sent her running. She returned again in 2016, detoxed, stayed for a short time and relapsed.
Yet something had shifted.
During one of those attempts, someone suggested she visit God’s Sports Arena (GSA), a unique church that supports many people battling addiction, homelessness, isolation or recovery. It was the first time she had ever been to church.
“This was where I came to Christ,” she says. Only weeks sober and overwhelmed, Danielle stepped forward to be prayed for. “I was changed forever. I believed.”
That faith did not instantly end her addiction. She relapsed again and was asked to leave the program. As she packed her bags, a Moonyah support worker sat with her and prayed, telling her things could still be different.
Even outside the program, she was not forgotten. Salvo Bill Hunter, founder of GSA and at that time, also chaplain to the Brisbane Broncos NRL team, continued checking in, even when Danielle was too ashamed to reply.
Journey past addiction, towards faith
By late 2018, Danielle was again exhausted, frightened and broken. She feared she would die if nothing changed.
“I was on my knees,” she says. “I was begging God to save me.”
She felt God urging her to return to GSA. A friend drove her there. She cried with Bill, asked for help and prayed. The following week, Moonyah called her back with a place in detox and rehab.
It was her fourth attempt and this time, she stayed.
Danielle completed detox and entered the longer-term recovery program, remaining for seven months. There were hurdles, many of them, but she held tightly to her faith.
“I knew if I kept my faith, in my recovery I would stay strong,” she says.
In 2019, she graduated from Moonyah.
Danielle now regularly shares her testimony at Salvation Army gatherings, recovery events and faith spaces, particularly with women who are early in recovery or leaving family and domestic violence.
She says her calling is simple — “To let people know there is hope.”
“My most important purpose is being a mum,” she says. “But if my story can help someone else stay, then it’s worth sharing.”
Easter, she says, is deeply personal.
“I have been shown God’s grace and mercy time and time again,” she says with a smile. “No matter how many times I turned my back or failed, his love didn’t waver.”
For Danielle, Easter is summed up in one line from the Gospel of John (John 8:36): “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
The people who stayed
Danielle speaks with deep gratitude about the people who walked beside her through recovery, including Bill Hunter, Moonyah case worker at the time, Glenn and Moonyah assistant managers at the time, Laura and Tim.
“These people mean a lot to me,” she says. “They believed in me when no one else did, and they did that with their love for Jesus. These people teach me how to love people [just] like Jesus did every single day. I’m so proud to call them my friends.”
“I message Bill Hunter every year on Father’s Day because of the belief and support he gives me that I never had,” she adds.
“I know all these amazing humans are part of The Salvation Army because they fight for people and offer hope through their love of Jesus. They believe in recovery, they believe in true salvation, and so do I. I’m living, breathing proof of this.”
Danielle says she is deeply grateful for the role The Salvation Army has played in her past and continues to play in her family today.
“GSA is the family I never had,” she says. “My partner Clayton plays music there on occasion. Both of us, coming from so much trauma as children, it is absolutely at our core that we break the cycles and that our kids know and grow in the love of Jesus, that they always know what a gift they truly are and never feel alone in that.”
A light that stayed on
Life is still demanding. Caring for a child with complex needs requires constant advocacy and strength. But Danielle is steady.
“Everything is okay because God’s all over it,” she says.
As Easter approaches, she feels an enormous sense of gratitude.
“God never stopped loving me,” she says. “His love didn’t waver. Not once.”
She cherishes her freedom and says, “It’s not a freedom that’s possible without Jesus. It’s not a joy that’s possible without Jesus. It’s not a life of blessings and walking in purpose without Jesus for me.”
For every person, in every situation, her advice is simple but profound.
“Look to the heavens,” Danielle says with absolute sincerity.