In their new memoir, It's a Long Way to Florida, authors Brooke and Patricia Sadler share the remarkable story of how a 1,200-mile honeymoon road trip in 1957 evolved into a 20-year, 30,000-mile missionary journey across three continents. The book, published by the authors, is now available for purchase online via major book retailers.
The narrative begins with a simple lakeside wedding in Michigan and a brand new red Falcon, a surprise wedding gift intended to carry the newlyweds to their dream honeymoon in St. Petersburg, Florida. However, divine interventions quickly altered their path. Instead of the sandy beaches of the Sunshine State, the Sadlers found themselves stepping into the unknown, embarking on an epic adventure of faith that would span decades and take them across the globe to Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
It's a Long Way to Florida offers an honest, gritty, and often humorous account of modern missionary life. From navigating a harrowing 12,000-mile overland family road trip from London to Sri Lanka through military checkpoints to surviving national food famines and economic collapses, the Sadlers' story proves that the greatest rewards often lie within the most inconvenient detours.
The book includes extraordinary accounts of faith in action, such as how Brooke managed to illegally smuggle truckloads of flour past five armed military checkpoints during a government-declared famine to feed starving church workers in Colombo. It also details the profound, decades-long friendship Brooke forged with a local Buddhist High Priest, which ultimately saved their mission school's land from government seizure.
Perhaps most touching is the couple's decision to open their doors to the world's most vulnerable. After a poignant question from their young adopted daughter, Pami, the Sadlers welcomed more than 80 orphaned children into their home over the years, nursing abandoned and malnourished infants back to health.
'We never could have mapped out the life we lived,' says 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.'
Today, Brooke and Pat are mostly retired and reside in Greeneville, Tennessee. True to their entrepreneurial spirit, they transformed a historic log cabin into Nolichucky Cabins, a mountain retreat and glass wedding chapel where they continue to serve their community. Their global family, including children Kevin, Pami, and Astrid, and many grandchildren, flourishes around them.
Perfect for fans of Christian memoirs, inspiring biography, and extraordinary travel narratives, It's a Long Way to Florida offers a practical, grounded template for what it means to live by faith. It is a powerful reminder that the life which unfolds when you follow where you are led, rather than where you intended, can be richer and more purposeful than anything you could plan on your own.
