Mighty Rivers Manifesto

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:28:26 -0600

The Promised Land and God's Last Covenant

To those of us who settled in Costa Rica ten years ago, Mighty Rivers Eco-farm represents much more than adventures in carving out a homestead in a beautiful Caribbean jungle. We were simultaneously pioneers in foreign territory, and in the spiritual realm, pioneers in God’s Promised Land, both of which plunged us into a decade of watershed events that changed the lives of three generations of the Lapp family. We remember God’s protection and leading through difficult spiritual journeys, loss of a loved one, jungle pioneer life, cultural adjustments, growth, love, forgiveness, and victory. We are humble first hand witnesses of the metamorphosis of faith which began in the lives of people raised in Pennsylvania Dutch Amish tradition, and which continues into the present glorious understanding of God’s new and final covenant to mankind.

Today we endeavor to draw into this exotic tropical landscape people who want to experience a piece of Eden in a crazy world. Our community in the jungle offers family oriented fun first had experiences in sustainable living, education in holistic health, and for those who desire it, worship, sharing and prayer. We endeavor to be a shining, local expression of God’s universal family, as children of God living and loving in His Promised Land.

We believe that people can find refuge in God’s kingdom in whichever part of the world that they physically live; however, we do have a special appreciation for Costa Rica’s tranquility, old fashioned ways of culture, and non-presence of a standing military. Costa Rica has a long tradition for attracting peace loving people from around the world, and it’s exciting to live in proximity to this kind of energy. The tranquil aspect of our jungle setting, relative freedom of Costa Rican culture, and changed, divinely warmed hearts of people in the Mighty Rivers family all combine to make the farm a special place, Praise God!! We thank God, we boast and bask in His Love, and we pray that the vibe and spirit of the Mighty Rivers Eco-community will always extend a friendly welcome to any person who wants to live near to God.

In a world where kingdoms are fueled by money and power, we at Mighty Rivers choose the simple life, and we confess that figuratively speaking, we are resident aliens on earth, from another kingdom; a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28) We believe that God’s new kingdom begins now, in our everyday interaction with God and one another. For this kingdom we are eternally thankful, and we respond in worship and obedience to His Word and Spirit. Each day of our lives here on earth should be an expression of life in God’s Kingdom, to which we give greater honor.

We are not unconcerned about happenings in worldly kingdoms. We endeavor to follow the example of Christ and his followers in dealing with money, authority, and people who want to harm or cheat us. We pray for righteous behavior of those to whom God has given authority. We also believe that there is a proper place for resisting injustice and opposing those who are a terror to good conduct. We are not pacifists. Our enemy is Satan, whom Jesus teaches us to rebuke and reject.

In this loyalty to the way of Jesus, we teach children from infancy to resist selfish ways, to not return evil for evil, to bless those who curse us, and to avoid conforming to the ways of this world. We encourage a life of blessing, sharing, and presentation of our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Our armor against Satan is our very faith in God. We wear, and are warmed by the clothing of truth of God’s love. Our defense against evil is not a bullet proof vest or armored car, but the breastplate of righteousness. Faith is our shield. The gospel of Peace is our footwear. The Spirit of Truth is our sword.
We honor Jesus as King in the Promised Land, and in the Spiritual realm, we still confront Babylon and many “ites,” (people and organizations that oppose God’s governance.) From our King we have not received instruction to shed blood or harm people. In embracing the government of God rather than the government of man, we become partakers of the Divine nature of God, which causes us to use God’s tools, instead of man’s tools. We are ambassadors of the good news of God’s final covenant with mankind which is Truth, and the hope set before us is a city which Jesus prepares for us to live in eternally.

We find that it is useful to explore the presence of the Promised Land, in which God wants us to live. As God gave to the children of Israel a covenant in the land of Canaan, he also gives to us a new and everlasting covenant by which to live in the spiritual realm. We believe that this new covenant was inaugurated on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, demonstrated in His everyday life, sealed with his blood, ratified at Calvary, written upon our hearts at His resurrection, and fully manifested at Pentecost.

If we do not understand the timing of the new covenant, there are two ways in which we will be inclined to stray from God’s will, and the Christ life. First, we might be inclined to seek God’s favor by continuing to keep old covenant commands and rituals. For example, we might seek holiness by things like circumcision, sacrificing animals, etc. If we get news of adulterous persons or false prophets in our neighborhood, we might be compelled to capture them, and stone them to death according to God’s covenant with Israel. In the new covenant, Christ commands us to speak one on one with offending persons and if they do not hear us, to confront with several witnesses, and if still unheard to bring them before the church body, and if offenders persists, to deal with them as we would with a heathen.

Our mercy towards the heathen, our interaction with one another, our tolerance, forgiveness and way of worship is completely changed as we believe and accept the New Covenant as truth. This is because in receiving the New Covenant we also receive a new heart and spirit, which also is a providential gift, happening and mystery.
Secondly, if we fail to understand the sealing of the new covenant by Christ’s blood, we will be tempted to add or annul things to that covenant. This is where religion, legalism and traditions of men become a substitute for the law of love that Christ promised would be written upon our hearts. We cannot add rules and doctrines to a covenant that was sealed by Christ’s blood. We forget that the New Covenant was a package deal; we get a covenant engraved upon our hearts, then we get a Teacher, or Holy Spirit to understand Jesus’ commands and example. With a new heart and spirit, we are enabled to live by His Covenant.

David the psalmist writes: “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.” In accepting God as our Friend and Teacher, we have nothing to fear. We rest our case on this promise, and believe that as he has spoken, he will reveal to us his covenant.
This does not mean that we should debase human fathers, teachers and friends. God will often use them for his purposes, to change our lives. But when we are not sure who to believe we find it necessary often to cry out to the Spirit and crosscheck our actions with Christ’s. We pray, “How would Jesus want me to do this,” or “How would Jesus want me to speak” or “How would Jesus want me to dress”. It is in this humility of spirit, love of one another, friendship with God, and unshakeable belief in God’s covenant promise that we find answers to life’s tough questions. There are other formulas for finding answers in life, but God’s formula works best.

In the account of King Josiah we read in Chronicles that when the Book of the Covenant was revealed to him, he responded in repentance, his heart tender and humble. He proceeded to make a covenant with God “to walk after the Lord with all his heart and soul”. Likewise, we accept the teachings of Christ as commands of God’s final Covenant. At the last supper Jesus offered this covenant to his disciples saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

Today, we accept God’s offer of a New Covenant by keeping sacraments which He has ordained, and by pledging to walk in His will with all our hearts. We also take liberty to respond to God’s Covenant daily or seasonally by observing covenants and covenant renewal with God and with one another. These could be called freewill offerings, something spontaneous that gushes forth from our changed hearts. In all of these covenants, there is gladness and freedom, and we believe with a primal trust that God hears these covenant renewals and responds again by keeping us from harm. The New Covenant refreshes eternal, ceaseless beauty and cleansing in the lives of people in God’s universal family.

We acknowledge much diversity in the lives of people in God’s family. We bear different kinds of scars from sin and we inherit the nature of fallen man. In God’s universal family, people find deliverance from bondages of such things as drug abuse, abusive families, cares of this world, religion, or general worldly ambitions and power structures. We find unity in bearing each other’s burdens, and recognition of one another’s growth and times of healing. For our brothers and sisters in whom we find uncleanness, we pray in hope and compassion with King Hezekiah, “May the good Lord pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God.”

In the life of the New Covenant, we are no longer just compared to a family of God, but a family/body exhibiting great diversity of purpose. Indeed, God himself gave us diversity, as spoken to us by Christ in examples like the parable of the talents and the laborers who arrived early and late. We believe that under God’s final Covenant we receive within us a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26), which causes us to embrace the forgiving, unselfish ways of Jesus, which then makes it possible for people of huge diversity to be unified into one body. It seems as though God in his wisdom created each of us with weakness, limitations and blind spots so that even the best of His servants are needy members of the body.

God, in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, selected twelve people to be his forerunners, his most intimate frontline people. We are not all frontline people. Neither do we all have faith as great as that of the Centurion. Neither do we all have the degree of courage and spunk of the apostle Peter, or the depth of failures of Peter, for that matter. But those who believe in God’s new covenant will be unified into his body. It is necessary for us to believe this concept, in order to understand the binding love of Jesus Christ.
God’s final covenant was offered to man with a teacher (Holy Spirit) to reveal it to us, new faith to believe it, new love to live by it, new life to enjoy it, and hope of a future, more perfect rest in God’s city.

In worship of God in his new covenant, we try to avoid the religion aspect of everyday Christianity along with many modern concepts of church. The Spirit of God relates individually with people, inviting a relationship with God as a father and friend. We at Mighty Rivers are committed to be instruments of that invitation and covenant.

The Spirit of God blesses people with liberty to respond to that invitation with diversity of praise of many kinds. We embrace this liberty, and as a local body of believers, avoid institution of human ordinances in regard to clothing, food, celebration of days and forms of worship. In His kingdom, or Promised Land, we are free and unencumbered by religion and power. This is a beautiful, rich land and we are sure that God wants us to enjoy it in the most intense way. Praise God!

We appreciate when servants of God contribute in making Mighty Rivers Eco farm, and our lovely neighborhood, a beacon in a dark world - a place where the Spirit of God changes people’s lives. We have met many people both locally and those who are travelling from other parts of the world who hunger and thirst for God’s Love, and it is our pleasure to continue sharing and reaching people.

If you appreciate God’s Promised Land, we invite you to share, contribute, live and learn in it. Mighty Rivers Eco-farm is only a small spec or chapter in the whole of God’s Promised Land, but we seek to prosper in it to the best of our ability, and we appreciate when mission hearted folks get involved. We don’t offer teaching degrees or career opportunities, but we’re in the business of getting the Real Degree, and we want people to get their names written in the Book of Life!

There is room at Mighty Rivers for God’s shepherds to live, teach and plant, both in the material sense and in the spiritual realm. There is shelter in the Promised Land. May God lead and teach us.

The Outreach

Finally, we want to be honest about who the Mighty Rivers team is and how you can help if you desire. Sometimes there are very few people present at the farm, and other times mission oriented individuals stay around the farm to help out for periods of time. We are not highly organized or funded.

Spanish speaking servants of God could be a major asset to this outreach. There are rental and leasing spots available for sojourners. We invite participation in Indigenous outreaches, including spending periods of time in Indigenous locations teaching God’s way, teaching English, or just learning from these native Indians.

We would also appreciate help with a Limon inner city outreach so that we can continue to bring groups of children from there to spend weekends at our farm. During these visits, it’s helpful to have people around that can assist with teaching, worshipping and learning English. We would also like to extend these farm visit opportunities to orphanages in San Jose.

In the interest of teaching sustainability and stewardship, we at Mighty Rivers we would also like to expand our small scale chicken, cows and hog projects which we have been able to do following using Joel Salatin pasture rotation methods. We have space for expanding into new areas like goats, fish and crawfish. Contributing families could sponsor any of a great variety of garden and greenhouse projects.

In the spiritual realm as well as the tangible, there is fertile soil at Mighty Rivers. We pledge to be God’s husbandmen.

FIVE YEARS OF GROWTH AT MIGHTY RIVERS ECO-FARM

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:32:39 -0600

Before.......................................and after

Welcome to our little farm on the jungle!

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:20:59 -0600

In the small village of San Bosco, just outside the Caribbean coastal town of La Alegria de Siquirres, Costa Rica, there is a place where travelers enjoy vacations, help with sustainable country gardening, swim in a large natural swimming pool, lodge for the night, listen to soothing sounds of rivers and birds, milk cows, and study a thousand wonders of nature. That place is Mighty Rivers Eco-farm, an unsung treasure of nature hidden along the banks of the smooth-rock, tumbling Rio Destierro (Exiled River) and the sometimes tranquil shores of Rio Perla (Pearl River), plumb smack in forever-verdant foothills of Costa Rica's second highest volcano.
Visitors to our village will be greeted by a small grocery store, a one room school house, and a tiny church. Tico (Costa Rican) country dwellers and Caucasian settlers constitute the estimated population of one hundred fifty people.

Mighty Rivers Eco-farm is graced by an interesting medley of farm animals and crops, while operating in harmony with nature and people. The landscape is a rolling river bottom triangle surrounded by mountains and rivers, with a spectacular Volcano Turrialba backdrop. The farm is actually squeezed between the converging points of “our” two rivers at the end of a gravel road.
On our farm you will discover a great variety of tropical fruits and plants cultivated for human consumption, herbal nutrition and of course beauty. We process and package natural peanut butter and raw wildflower honey. There are many exciting things to discover at Mighty Rivers, so on your next visit to Costa Rica, please drop in! We can't wait to share with you the beauty and flavors of Mighty Rivers Eco-farm, served up in an interesting atmosphere of Pennsylvania Dutch and Tico cultures. It's our goal to be responsible stewards of land & nature, to develop permaculture style sustainability in our neighborhood, and to encourage one another to walk in God's presence.

Costa Rica's Caribbean Region Agricultural Colleges.......EARTH and CATIE
Exploring ............................................... MIGHTY RIVERS ECO-FARM
Exploring Costa Rica's treasure-laden....... CARIBBEAN COAST
A lost treasure....................................... NATURAL MILK
Recommended reading............................ ECO-BEEF and PASTURE RAISED POULTRY

Psalm 37:29
The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.

Mighty Rivers Eco-farm, Costa Rica - ECO TOURS, LODGING, & REAL ESTATE ALONG WITH ORGANIC AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN COSTA RICA'S CARIBBEAN REGION

Mighty Rivers Manifesto

FIVE YEARS OF GROWTH AT MIGHTY RIVERS ECO-FARM

Welcome to our little farm on the jungle!