DR FRANCIS AND MRS EDITH SCHAEFFER WITH DAVE AND PAULINE SEIVRIGHT AND FAMILY
TOP PHOTO WITH MRS.EDITH SHAFFER IN MIAMI (1987-8): (L-R:) Dave, Davey, Edith Schaeffer, Pauline and Rachel, and Roger.
BOTTOM PHOTO: DR SCHAEFFER at head of table. DAVE SEIVRIGHT 3rd from right of photo. L’ABRI SUMMER 1976
In 1976 we rented a chalet, very high in Swiss Alps, for our family, at Villars near Labri. We spent the entire summer there with our children. Dr Schaeffer was kind enough to sit personally with me every day on the beautiful Swiss hillside near his home facing a magnificent glacier. He personally mentored me answering my questions and explaining his books and writings. Pauline and I also participated in all the lectures and discussions in the L’Abri. We were particularly impressed to see God use both Dr. And Mrs. Schaeffer to lead several very intelligent atheists, Buddhists, Marxists, etc., to a personal relationship with Our Lord Jesus Christ. All this happened in the context of hospitality and community. I was so excited to see the truth of Biblical Christianity stand up to all other worldviews, that I decided there and then to give up my successful legal profession in Jamaica, and to study full-time under the Schaeffers. The following year, 1977, we left Jamaica with all our children, all our possessions including our furniture and our car, to live by faith and to study in Europe and to live by faith. Our journey led us to English L’Abri, where we met Jerram Bsrrs; to Dr John Stott who taught me how to preach and much more; and to Trinity College where I studied and was mentored by Dr J. I. Packer. God called me to North America, and we arrived in Miami in June 1979. We hope to chronicle this incredible faith journey of how God took care of us and our children in miraculous ways, far beyond our wildest expectations. All this took place Without us ever asking anyone for financial support, but only by praying and fasting on Mondays as they did at L’Abri. Please pray that we will be able to complete a book about this period of our life to the glory of God‼️
L’Abri (French for “Shelter”) is an evangelical Christian organisation founded by Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith in Huémoz-sur-Ollon, Switzerland, on June 5, 1955. They opened their alpine home as a ministry to curious travellers and as a forum to discuss philosophical and religious beliefs.
Francis August Schaeffer (January 30, 1912 – May 15, 1984 was an American evangelical theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is best known for co-founding the L’Abri community in Switzerland with his wife Edith Schaeffer, née Seville. Opposed to theological modernism, Schaeffer promoted a more historic Protestant faith and a presuppositional approach to Christian apologetics, which he believed would answer the questions of the age. HE PASSIONATELY BELIEVED THAT CHRISTIANITY SHOULD NOT BE LIMITED ONLY TO THE GODPEL BUT SHOULD APPLY TO ALL AND EVERY AREA OF LIFE‼️
Schaeffer’s wife, Edith Schaeffer, became a prolific author in her own right. HER BOOK ”CHRISTIANITY IS JEWISH” is one of the best overviews of the Bible ever written.
In 1948, the Schaeffer family moved to Switzerland to help with post-war Europe. His children attended Oxford and Cambridge and brought home So many young people asking the deep questions of life that in 1955 the Schaeffers established the community called L’Abri (French for “the shelter”). Serving as both a philosophy seminar and a spiritual community, L’Abri attracted thousands of young people, and was later expanded into Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Schaeffer was known as the “prophet of Europe” but his reach extended to the Soviet union after Perestroika and it was Schaeffer, with the help of C.Everett Koop, the surgeon general of the USA who through their video series “Whatever Happened To the Human Race” brought to the forefront of US politics the issue of Abortion‼️ This was not at the time generally accepted by the evangelical church, which was largely pietistic, but Schaeffer eventually went on to change the future of the USA, it’s politics, and it’s debate about the sanctity of life‼️
NN
