My World Vision Story – 3 – From ‘Prisoner’ in the Communist Camp, to Globe Trotter

From ‘prisoner’ in the communist camp, to globe trotter

I have started in my new adventure as a World Vision staff member on December 1^st, 1999, one month before the turn of the Millennium. It was not an easy ride, by any means, but I have learned enormously during the last sixteen years as a staff member of this Christian humanitarian organisation.

Although my Christian ministry had from the beginning an ecumenical dimension, and my theological studies centred on contemporary Orthodox theology helped me to go beyond the narrow confines of the evangelicalism of my youth, it was in WV that I have come to understand in very real terms, and to be able to serve the entire breadth of the Church. Furthermore, it was in the WV context that I had real human interaction with people of other faith, and was often humbled by the sincerity of their commitment to a faith other than mine, and by their genuine love to others. Without my WV experience, these dimensions of faith would have remained theoretical, distant realities for me.

J Richard Pearcey – Death, Revolt, and Resurrection: A Tribute to Edith Schaeffer

Edith Rachel Merritt Seville Schaeffer, wife of Francis August Schaeffer, co-founder of L’Abri Fellowship and of the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation, died March 30, 2013, at her chalet home in Gryon, Switzerland. She was born Nov. 3, 1914, in Wenchau, China, and was the third daughter of Dr. George Hugh Seville and Jessie Maude (Merritt) Seville, who served with the China Inland Mission, founded by Hudson Taylor.

A funeral service for Mrs. Schaeffer was held Thursday, April 25, 2013, in St. Paul, Minnesota, at the First Covenant Church of St. Paul. Son-in-law Rev. Udo Middelmann, president of the Gryon-based Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation, delivered a three-part discourse (each part separated by music) that honored and remembered Edith Schaeffer, examined how she was able to achieve a “wider view of God’s world,” and explained how the affirmation “I will fear no evil,” including the abnormality and evil of death, is rooted in truth about reality and not in a subjective desire to find personal comfort.

Deborah Middelmann-Schaeffer – Obituary of Edith Schaeffer

Mrs. Edith Rachel Merritt Seville Schaeffer, born in Wenchow, China on November 3, 1914, died in her home in Gryon, Switzerland, the night of Good Friday to Holy Saturday March 29/30, 2013. Contrary to erroneous reports she had lived in her lovely chalet built in 1683 in Gryon for 13 years, where she longed to live and die, surrounded with the beloved witnesses of her rich life: her Steinway baby grand Piano, her dozens of paintings by her son Frank, her gorgeous antiques and linen drapes, known by her friends in Rochester MN as she entertained them in her home there, “The Old Orchard”, for 17 years.

All these precious things surrounded her as she so hoped, on the night she talked with her son-in-law and pastor Udo Middelmann about the resurrection with fresh flowers next to her, watched a concert on BBC Four TV with delight, fell asleep and never woke on Holy Saturday. She will, we know, be raised as God promised, from her burial place next to her husband Francis Schaeffer in Rochester MN.

Frank Schaeffer – A Tribute to My Evangelical Leader Mom, Edith Schaeffer

Frank Schaeffer is the youngest son of Francis & Edith Schaeffer.  The text below, from which I paste a few excerpts,  was published by Huffington Post.

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Edith Schaeffer 1914 – 2013 RIP

My mother Edith Schaeffer died today. She was the author of many books on family life and spirituality and co-founder with my father Francis Schaeffer of the evangelical ministry of L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland. She has just gone to be with the Lord, as she would put it. She died at home which was her wish.

I last talked to Mom yesterday. Rather she slept as I talked. A few days before my granddaughter Lucy was on my lap and we were talking to Mom via Skype. That day she was awake.

…

During one of the last calls when Lucy and I talked to her last week, Mom was beautiful with her silver hair in a ponytail and her red hair band and matching shawl. Trapped in a body she’d lost control of, it took all of her formidable willpower to acknowledge our love. She had a feeding tube in her nose and was slipping in and out of consciousness. Five minutes after we hung up she would not remember the conversation. But in the moment when I said “I love you,” she nodded back and was fully aware.

Mom was staring earnestly into the laptop screen her nurse had set up so we could talk via Skype. My four year old granddaughter Lucy whispered “Does she have her perfume on?”

“Your great grandmother always wears perfume. So I bet she does,” I answered.

Udo Middelmann – In memoriam Edith Schaeffer

Edith & Francis A Schaeffer

Edith Rachel Merritt Seville Schaeffer died on March 30, 2013 in her home in Gryon, Switzerland, where she had moved 13 years ago to be surrounded by memories, her music, her son’s paintings and the detailed care organized daily by her daughter Deborah Middelmann. She was born on November 3, 1914 as the third daughter of Dr. George Hugh and Jessie Maude Seville in Wenchau, China, where her parents ran a school for girls and taught the Bible in Mandarin.

Edith Schaeffer marked her life with the expression of rich ideas, often rebellious against the staid and superficial life she saw among Christians. The oldest sister became a communist in New York of the 30ies, the second eloped. Edith Seville married Francis August Schaeffer in 1935 and in no way was she the typical pastor’s or missionary wife. She turned her active mind to work with her husband, teaching first seminary wives to think and to question, to create and make of life something of integrity, as her husband so wanted her to do.

Christian Scholar: America Could Produce Antichrist of the 21st Century, Christian News, The Christian Post

Christian Scholar: America Could Produce Antichrist of the 21st Century, Christian News, The Christian Post.

I have met Vishal Mangalwadi in 1991 in Slovakia, at a conference organised by CARE in the UK. A number of other disciples of Francis Schaeffer, and Edith Schaeffer, his wife, were also present there.

I liked in general what Vishal had to say, even if I did not agree with everything (he remained much more Schaefferian in his thought that I am now), but I must confess I am disappointed in this kind of resorting to sensationalism. It seems to me that he speculates the furor eschatologicum that dominates our world and I find this distasteful.

But maybe I simply don’t understand.

What do you think?

Edith Schaeffer

Edith & Francis Schaeffer

Am cunoscut-o pe Edith, soţia lui Francis Schaeffer, târziu, în 1991, în timpul unei conferinţe în Slovacia, organizată de organizaţia CARE din Anglia, cu participarea unui număr de ucenici ai lui Schaeffer.

Edith este autoarea unui număr de cărţi, dintre care cel puţin una este tradusă în româneşte. Evadarea din rutină sau arta de-a face din casă un cămin, Editura Logos, Cluj-Napoca, 2001.