In a new memoir titled It's a Long Way to Florida, authors Brooke and Patricia Sadler recount how a planned 1,200-mile honeymoon road trip in 1957 transformed into a 20-year, 30,000-mile missionary journey across North America, Asia, and the Middle East. The book, published by the authors, details their unexpected path from a lakeside wedding in Michigan to serving communities in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
The narrative begins with a simple wedding and a surprise gift—a red Falcon car intended to take the couple to St. Petersburg, Florida. Instead of reaching the Sunshine State, the Sadlers say divine interventions redirected their route. Their journey included a harrowing 12,000-mile overland family road trip from London to Sri Lanka, navigating military checkpoints and surviving national food famines and economic collapses. The memoir emphasizes that the detour became the destination, with the couple ultimately welcoming more than 80 orphaned children into their home over the years.
Key episodes include Brooke smuggling truckloads of flour past five armed checkpoints during a government-declared famine to feed starving church workers in Colombo. The book also highlights a decades-long friendship with a local Buddhist High Priest that saved their mission school's land from government seizure, and the couple's decision to nurse abandoned, malnourished infants back to health—a legacy sparked by a question from their adopted daughter, Pami.
"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."
The Sadlers, now mostly retired, reside in Greeneville, Tennessee, where they operate Nolichucky Cabins, a mountain retreat and glass wedding chapel. The memoir is available for purchase online via major book retailers. The book offers a practical template for living by faith, appealing to fans of Christian memoirs, inspiring biography, and extraordinary travel narratives.
