Edith Rachel Mei Fuh Seville Schaeffer, 1914 - 2013

 Edith Schaeffer, born 1914in China, died in Switzerland yesterday at 98. She and her husband, Francis, founded L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerlandin 1955, a study center and community that grew out of their home. L’Abri,French for “shelter,” together with the Schaeffers’ 40+ books had a profoundimpact on evangelical Christianity, impacting a wide range of individuals:pastors, such as James Boice at 10^th Presbyterian and George Grantof King’s Meadow Study Center, RC Sproul of Ligonier Valley Study Center, OsGuinness of Trinity and Veritas Forums, professors, such as Nancy Pearcey atHouston Baptist, Jamie Smith at Calvin, David Wells at Gordon, John Frame atReformed Theological Seminary; among political activists who stirred theProtestant conscience on human life issues, and, in the art world, Lee Hendrix,Senior Curator of Drawings at the Getty Center, among many others.                     

I had the privilege ofworking and living with the Schaeffers and their family for several years,beginning when I was 19. Carolyn traveled with Edith for a month in the mid-90s in China, when revisiting her missionary home.

Edith Rachel, by her Chinesename, Mei Fuh（美喜, meaning “Beautiful Happiness”) was the youngest ofthree daughters born in China to missionaries, George and Jessie Seville. Thischildhood heritage remained a key part of her identity, as it had also been forBilly Graham’s late wife, Ruth.

In fact, the model of prayer support for L’Abri – the“praying family,” which allowed the work to break from institutional centers ofcontrol and appeal directly to God for support - was adopted by Edith Schaefferfrom the China Inland Mission.  Edith ledthe Monday morning prayer meetings, and was the communication hub, writing the “FamilyLetter” newsletters and the “prayer letter,” given on request to only thepraying family.

A scrupulous Bible reader, I watched her early in themorning before breakfast, pouring over scripture, writing meticulous notes inthe top, bottom, & side margins.  Shewould also write out her prayers.

Hospitality

Edith opened her home and had a flair and commitmentfor beauty, making mealtimes memorable, serving with flowers, candlelight,working resourcefully with limited funds. It was the unrelenting attention todetail, the ability to go the entire journey, which often turned a simpleconversation into something noteworthy, visually and spiritually; things werebrought to an exceptional focus, all the while the individual felt profoundly caredfor.

 

She struggled with perfectionism. She was a taskmasterin preparing Sunday evening high tea sandwiches, whose strategy was to have themeal completely done, clearing the evening for nonstop reading aloud. The breadwas to be buttered "thinly and to the edges” or they were sent back; sometimes we joked, "Your epitaph should read: ‘Thinly And To the Edges.” A forerunner ofnutritionists and regional chefs today, Edith took pride in her extensivevegetable garden, opening with joy the annual shipment from Philadelphia’sBurpee Seed Company, first rendering the garden on a drawing board, enjoyingthe visual layout. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter menus were similarly sketchedout, as well.

She saw the world as an artist, composed landscapes,appreciated textures, found much beauty in nature: a twisted branch, the colorof moss.  Like a child collecting shellson the seashore, she made discoveries and, when turning this gaze upon human beings,found beauty there, as well.  Edith notonly believed in the infinite worth of people made in God’s image, but acted asthough it were really true; although this truth also came with a price - everywedding gift long ago broken in service of hospitality.

 

She often said that she prayed her children would besolid mahogany or oak, not veneer, and this intense, personable trait – theability to value you even more than you valued yourself – was completelydisarming.  She could go around a dinnertable of 36 during Sunday lunch, speak directly to each person duringintroductions with complete frankness; an almost unlimited reserve for conversationand knowing someone, often to the detriment of her own health.  She wasn’t good with limits. 

I sometimes thought: what this woman might have donewith a cell-phone!

 

Arts

Well-educated in her family background, Edith had arich taste for classical music, children’s literature, sculpture and painting,but brought this into the home and into daily conversation; the arts hadimmediate and direct importance for her. Both she and her husband liked theirmusic loud, drowning out the considerable noise in their house full of guests, withBach, Mozart, choral music, and Scott Joplin.

 

A keen instinct for fashion, early on, she designedand made many of her own clothes, overcoming financial limits with an “I can dothat” audaciousness. In fact, an expert seamstress, she put her husband through seminary, tailoring men's suits and ballroom gowns for Philadelphia socialites, crafted belts from leather hides, which were picked-up by a New York designer who encouraged her to move to the city; but that wouldn't happen.

Although down-to-earth, her sophisticated design sense and churning, creative energy at times made me feel I was in the presence of a godfearingGucci or Christian Chanel.  A genuinely literateand culturally up-to-date individual, who also scrubbed floors and peeledpotatoes; it was an intriguing combination of worlds and an observer might feeloverpowered by it all.

 

She invested heavily in her children’s education,reading aloud missionary biographies – Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael - onSunday afternoons. The Schaeffers absolutely loved Italy – the art, the direct,non-fussy nature of its cuisine, level of craftsmanship, sense of style ineveryday life as a kind of antidote to an overly mental, cerebral rigidnessoften ascribed to northern Protestantism, soaking up the sun, colors, and lustfor life readily experienced in the Mediterranean south.  Which is why they also grieved the lack of genuinebelief they also found there.

 

With origins in China and a remarkable life abroad,authoring 20 books, Edith Schaeffer was still a person of the church and atheart, a pastor’s wife, 30 years bereft of her husband. Francis often said hisfavorite hymn was “Jesus Loves Me,” with its clear reasoning, “for the Bibletells me so.”  Edith had a substantialhymnody - British and American – and could sing through an entire hymnal – but oneof her favorites, “I Know Whom I Have Believed” comes to mind:

I know not why God's wondrous grace

to me he hath made known,   

nor why, unworthy, Christ in love          

redeemed me for his own. 

But I know whom I have believed,        

and am persuaded that he is able       

to keep that which I've committed         

unto him against that day.

In the end, her “I can do that” was eclipsed by anunshakeable conviction that only “he is able.” And given her sense of dramatictiming, it also seems appropriate Edith Schaeffer died at the end of Passionweek to enter the presence of her Lord, celebrating Easter hours later; nolonger in need of being persuaded.