[Note: This is the text of a speech given by Ian Shelburne on the last day of the Summit.]

If I were a journalist working for the New Vision or the BBC and covering the University Advisors Summit 2009 in Mbale, I would be able to report a number of significant events and accomplishments that I have seen during the course of the past three days. I could write an article that would include observations such as the following:

The Second University Advisors Summit in Mbale celebrated the reception of the Letter of Interim Authority from the National Council for Higher Education, giving formal permission for comprehensive development of LivingStone International University up until the point at which it is ready to enroll students.

There was re-statement of the need for this university, both because of the indispensability of education in general and also because of the particular scarcity of higher educational opportunities in the eastern and northern parts of Uganda.

The summit reviewed the steps that must be taken to move from the Letter of Interim Authority to the Provisional License that will usher in the full operation of the university. It was noted that in the areas of public contact information and library development, LIU has already made excellent progress toward fulfilling the requirements for the Provisional License. There is still much to be done in regard to land acquisition, construction of facilities, equipment acquisition and staff development, over the next two and a half years.

There was surprise and delight at the unexpected appearance of the Hon. Gabriel Opio, former minister of state for higher education and current minister for home affairs, who greeted the delegates and offered his encouragement and advice for the development of LIU.

Summit delegates toured land that is being considered for purchase for permanent campus development, and also walked through facilities at MTI and GNPI that have been greatly upgraded since the last summit in 2006, and which offer an option to host LIU temporarily if there is a need to begin university operations there while the permanent campus is being developed.

Delegates spent many hours considering draft constitution and by-laws for a University Advisory Council, and offering their suggestions for refinements. Much of this input was woven in to a Provisional Constitution and By-Laws document. A process was set in motion that should result in final selection and inauguration of the LIU University Advisory Council about six weeks from now. The date for the first meeting of the UAC will be set after the confirmation of the council membership.

The Interim Committee for University Development (ICUD) confides that it has been able to identify several delegates at this summit who are qualified not only for service on the UAC, but who should probably sit on the University Council that will govern the institution, once LIU has received its Provisional License.

The summit working groups spent further long hours to generate ideas for the best ways to conduct fund-raising and recruitment of students and staff for LIU. The results were a compendium of remarkably creative, practical and comprehensive strategies. As Shawn Tyler was heard to comment, “If we implement even half of these ideas, we will be doing very well indeed!”

Summit delegates enjoyed a number of devotional sessions together, at which various speakers delivered messages that were positive, affirming, supportive, encouraging, and full of wisdom.

Reliable sources disclose that on one evening several delegates were unable to contain their enthusiasm, leaping from their seats to participate in multi-cultural dances while the Teso Jazz Band was performing.

…But I’m not a newspaper reporter, I’m a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And all of us in this room are living stones – not dead ones! – washed in the blood of the Lamb, transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, planted by the streams of God’s water of life and filled with the fire of his Holy Spirit. We have a different vocabulary, a different native language, in which our tongues have been instructed from the Holy Scriptures. So with your kind indulgence, let me talk about what God has been doing at this summit in a way that you might not hear on the BBC.

At the 2009 University Advisors Summit in Mbale, GOD brought brothers and sisters together in unity – how good and how pleasant! – and the oil of his Spirit flowed down as they worked together on ways of fulfilling their calling as a royal priesthood on the continent of Africa and beyond.

We have remembered the word of the Lord to his servant through Isaiah, that it is too small a thing to be a light to one nation only: No, I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth!

This summit has been a time in which our young men have been seeing visions, and our old men dreaming dreams, as God continues to pour out his Spirit on both his male and female servants!

In focus groups, over meals and tea, and in-between sessions, those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name.

At just the right moment, GOD brought the Honorable Gabriel Opio in to address the summit delegates, in order to remind those in human government that Heaven has a plan afoot to make major changes for the better for the people of this region.

Throughout the summit proceedings the dominant tone has been one of partnership in the gospel, thinking not only of one’s own interests but also of the interests of others – clear evidence of the mind of Christ at work, inspired by the active presence of the Holy Spirit.

GOD has reminded us this week that in the recession-free economy of his kingdom, investment capital is not primarily financial – it is the treasure of cherished friendships in Christ, founded in our shared new birth and strengthened by shared experiences such as we have had together this week. In the words of the Preacher of old: “And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him--a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

We have realized this week that the invisible is greater than the visible:
•    What LIU will become by God’s grace and power is indescribably greater than the small beginnings that we see today.
•    The number of brothers and sisters around the world who are praying for and investing in this vision is enormously greater than the small number of participants that we see around us at this summit.
•    The unseen resources of Heaven to bring this vision to reality are unspeakably greater than anything we can now see, and indeed than anything we can even ask or imagine.

God has reminded us that we will take the steps toward a Provisional License and beyond not by might or by power, but by his Spirit.

And we will go from here not with fear, but with love and power and self-discipline, because the One who is in us is greater than he who is in the world!

Praise the Lord!