Honeymoon Detour Leads to 20-Year Missionary Journey in New Memoir

In their captivating new memoir, It's a Long Way to Florida, authors Brooke and Patricia Sadler recount an extraordinary journey that began as a 1,200-mile honeymoon road trip and evolved into a 20-year, 30,000-mile missionary adventure across three continents. The book opens in 1957 with a simple lakeside wedding in Michigan and a surprise red Falcon car, intended to carry the newlyweds to St. Petersburg, Florida. However, divine interventions redirected their path, leading them to Sri Lanka and Pakistan instead. The Sadlers share authentic, gritty, and often humorous accounts 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. Their story proves that the greatest rewards often lie within the most inconvenient detours.

Readers will encounter extraordinary accounts of faith in action, including how Brooke smuggled truckloads of flour past armed checkpoints during a government-declared famine to feed starving church workers in Colombo. The memoir also highlights the profound friendship Brooke forged with a local Buddhist High Priest, which saved their mission school's land from government seizure. Perhaps most moving is the couple's decision to open their home to vulnerable children, ultimately welcoming more than 80 orphaned children over the years, sparked by a poignant question from their adopted daughter, Pami. Today, the Sadlers reside in Greeneville, Tennessee, where they operate Nolichucky Cabins, a mountain retreat and glass wedding chapel, continuing their legacy of service.

It's a Long Way to Florida 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. Perfect for fans of Christian memoirs and inspiring biographies, the book offers a practical template for living by faith. Published by Brooke & Patricia Sadler, it is available online via major book retailers.