As a result of his contact with Sybil and Eli, Waldmeier becomes a convinced Friend and in 1873 establishs what will become the Friends School in Brummana.
Waldmeier writes in his Autobiography of his meeting with Sybil and Eli:
I was told that they were Quakers, or Friends, who were good people on the whole, though wrong in rejecting the outward ordinances [of baptism and communion]. This interested me much, and as I had never become acquainted with such people before, I the more desired to see them, and learn their religious principles. Their addresses, especially those of Sybil Jones, were so powerful and edifying, that our hearts were touched, and I began to think that their religious principles must be of a superior nature. I went to the hotel where they lodged, and made their acquaintance, and from that time I have believed that the Quaker principles are the right basis for a true spiritual Church.
Waldmeier continues to work for the British Syrian Schools for three more years, during which he meets other Friends travelling from England. He visits England himself in 1872. In the last years of his work in Beirut for the British Schools he writes that on his rounds of missionary schools in the mountains above Beirut he “often looked eastwards…and could see many villages and hamlets in which priestly assumption kept the people in darkness and superstitious bondage.” His reflection that only eight miles from Beirut “nothing is done for the enlightenment of the benighted mountaineers” leads him to resign his post with the British Syrian Schools and move with his family to Brummana where he sensed God was leading him to establish a new school. He chooses Brummana as ripe for mission work because the inhabitants had been described to him as “the greatest liars and thieves in the world. They are Maronites, Greeks, and Druzes, and the evil report of them has filled the country, even unto Egypt.”
After returning from his 1872 visit to England, Waldmeier writes to a prominent Friend in London, Hannah Stafford Allen, seeking support for his work. Stafford Allen raises funds to send to Waldmeier and also sends his letter on to Eli Jones, who takes it to New England Yearly Meeting. The Yearly Meeting raises $50 to send to Brummana and declares their willingness to join with British Friends to support Waldmeier’s work there.
Quoted in H. J. Turtle, Quaker Service in the Middle East with a History of Brummana High School, (Friends Service Council, London) p. 15-16
