Brooke and Patricia Sadler's new memoir, It's a Long Way to Florida, tells the story of how a planned 1,200-mile honeymoon road trip turned into a 20-year, 30,000-mile missionary journey across three continents. The book, published by the authors, is available for purchase online via major book retailers.
The narrative begins in 1957 with a lakeside wedding in Michigan and a new red Falcon intended to carry the newlyweds to St. Petersburg, Florida. Instead, the couple found themselves on an epic adventure of faith that took them to Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The memoir offers an honest and often humorous account of modern missionary life, including a harrowing 12,000-mile overland family road trip from London to Sri Lanka through military checkpoints, surviving national food famines, and economic collapses.
Readers will encounter extraordinary accounts of faith in action, such as how Brooke smuggled truckloads of flour past five armed military checkpoints during a government-declared famine to feed starving church workers in Colombo. The book also details the profound friendship Brooke forged with a local Buddhist High Priest, which ultimately saved their mission school's land from government seizure. The couple opened their doors to the world's most vulnerable, nursing abandoned and malnourished infants back to health, and eventually welcomed more than 80 orphaned children into their home.
"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."
Now mostly retired and residing in Greeneville, Tennessee, the Sadlers transformed a historic log cabin into Nolichucky Cabins, a mountain retreat and glass wedding chapel where they continue to serve their community.
Perfect for fans of Christian memoirs, inspiring biography, and extraordinary travel narratives, It's a Long Way to Florida offers a practical template for living by faith. It is a powerful reminder that the life which unfolds when you follow where you are led can be richer than anything you could plan on your own.
