In a new memoir, It's a Long Way to Florida, authors Brooke and Patricia Sadler share the story of how a 1,200-mile honeymoon road trip turned into a 20-year, 30,000-mile missionary journey across three continents. The book, published by Brooke & Patricia Sadler and available online via major retailers, details the couple's life-changing detour from a planned honeymoon in St. Petersburg, Florida, to missionary work in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
The narrative begins in 1957 with a lakeside wedding in Michigan and a new red Falcon car meant to carry the newlyweds to Florida. However, divine interventions led them instead to a life of faith-driven service. The memoir offers an honest and often humorous account of modern missionary life, covering a 12,000-mile overland family road trip from London to Sri Lanka through military checkpoints and survival during food famines and economic collapses.
Key events include Brooke smuggling truckloads of flour past five armed military checkpoints during a government-declared famine to feed starving church workers in Colombo. The book also highlights the couple's friendship with a local Buddhist High Priest, which saved their mission school's land from government seizure. Additionally, the Sadlers opened their home to vulnerable children, ultimately adopting more than 80 orphans after their young daughter Pami asked about abandoned infants.
"We never could have mapped out the life we lived," said co-author Brooke Sadler. "Every time we faced an impossible logistical problem or a dangerous crisis, the answer arrived in a way we never could have engineered. We wrote this book to remind readers that when God redirects your route, the detour is very often the destination."
Now retired in Greeneville, Tennessee, the Sadlers operate Nolichucky Cabins, a mountain retreat and glass wedding chapel. The book is suited for fans of Christian memoirs, inspiring biography, and travel narratives, offering a practical template for living by faith. It's a Long Way to Florida is available for purchase online via major book retailers.
