Was it coincidence that brought Francis and Edith Schaeffer to their home in the Swiss Alps on an April Fools Day? Or was it another of God's subtle ironies pointing ahead to the essence of their future work?
Was God, in other words, as so often in history, choosing the foolish and weak things of the world to shame the wise and strong?
I say this because when the Schaeffers arrived that day they were in fact committing themselves to buying a chalet for which they had no money! They didn't even have enough for the initial deposit, let alone the final payment. A series of remarkable experiences (which would take too long to explain now but which are all in the book The L'Abri Story by Edith Schaeffer, including their expulsion from Switzerland!), gave them an assurance that God was leading them. Joshua-like, they were stepping into the unknown and trusting him for what they needed. They believed God was able to rescind the Swiss expulsion and give them the house. Well, the chalet was bought and the Schaeffers did stay. And that was how L'Abri began.
