For Valerie Wade, a long stay in the state of Washington this summer was no holiday but a chance to continue the work that she loves: sharing Bible stories with young people.

However, the six-week missionary trip, in which she stayed with friend and fellow evangelist Patsy Seger, also landed Ms Wade among the biggest wildfires in the state’s history.

“I had a dose of everything: fire, wind storms, smoke and ash coming in as we told stories,” she told The Royal Gazette.

The child evangelism fellowship is a non-denominational initiative that brings Bible stories to primary schoolchildren.

With Ms Seger, Ms Wade took the programme on the road in Washington in a trailer called the Story Barn — which proved a hit with locals, even taking second place at the Omak Stampede rodeo.

Ms Wade is legally blind, having lost most of her eyesight to retinitis pigmentosa — but she was quickly aware of the fires raging in central Washington.

“From her house at Chelan, I could see smoke coming off the mountain,” she recalled.

The lake resort was hit badly in August by fires that knocked out the electricity for several days.

Her friend had to be called from Omak as the fires swept down the mountain and jumped the river, coming to within a quarter of a mile of her home. Thirty homes were lost to the flames.

“It was a scary feeling to know that her house and all my things could have been burnt,” said Ms Wade, who found herself wondering if she should have held on to her passport.

“There were 14 fires started, one at a time, by lightning. Three firemen were killed in the town of Twisp,” she said. “A lot of orchards were destroyed, homes lost. One lady I visited had her house burnt down.”

Driving on through smoke, with ash constantly in the air, Ms Wade stuck out the trip — even if friends back home might have preferred her to get somewhere safer.

“I just told them I was on fire for Jesus,” she laughed.