Edith Rachel Merritt Seville Schaeffer was born in Wenzhou, China, to missionary parents working in the China Inland Mission.
Though she lived in China only until the age of six, she retained vivid memories and a life-long love of China. The family moved back to the States and, while attending Beaver College, she met Francis Schaeffer. They were married in 1935. He had three pastorates in the States in the then Bible Presbyterian Church, with her always completely involved. Their daughters Priscilla, Susan and Deborah were born during those years while their son Franky was born in Switzerland in 1952.
L’Abri
In 1948 they moved to Switzerland, sent to Europe by their denomination to support Bible-believing pastors and churches. They found that they were spending a growing amount of their time simply speaking with people in their home, and in 1955 they resigned from the mission to live by faith and to start L’Abri, which they hoped would be a shelter from the storms of the 20th century and a place where people could get honest answers to their questions and also see the reality of the existence of God exhibited in their lives. Their basis was simply the Bible, and throughout their lives they never wavered from the entire truthfulness and trustworthiness of God’s word.
