Internships and Certification Programs in Permacultural Sustainability & Natural Healing

The Kingdom of Heaven estate, previously stewarded by The Royal Bloodline of David healing ministry, is currently under operated by Medical Veritas International, Inc., under the direction of Dr. Leonard Horowitz, in alliance with the World Organization for Natural Medicine, advancing the Clinics for Humanity Project.

Through this collaboration, The Kingdom is able to offer accredited residency programs and internships for persons seeking to develop knowledge, skills, and advanced degrees in botanical medicine, and natural healing. In addition, certified instructor(s) are currently being sought to administer a program in permacultural engineering and community sustainability,

New resident interns are required to make a one year commitment to learn organic gardening and tropical permaculture skills, engage local faculty and the natural healing community, and integrate studies to become knowledgeable in the practices of natural healing and healthier living.

Ideal Residential Candidates

The ideal intern is a positive, intelligent, mature person with passions consistent with the curriculum, demonstrating excellent communication skills. Candidates must have a strong desire to learn and develop personally and professionally. Candidates must be conscious of their humility in relation to the powerful natural surroundings that compel spiritual awareness, open heartedness, and patient tolerance of others less aware and grateful.

Interning at The Kingdom of Heaven

Matriculation in this program provides residents regular opportunities to “ground” themselves, and get in tune with the Earth and nature, enabling them with knowledge and practical skills to develop a healthier and more loving, prospering, and enjoyable life.

An internship provides an opportunity to engage academically in alternative community development, organic gardening, permaculture, sustainable living, and cultivating plants for nutritional and medicinal value.

To provide food sustainably for Kingdom guests as well as the community by tending the orchards and gardens. During the internship skills in organic gardening and permaculture methods will be taught and performed hands on. Along with instruction, scheduled seminars and talks from visiting scholars and local experts knowledgable in a wide range of topics not only related to agriculture but also covering health and wellness, alternative healing methods, spirituality, interns will acquire the knowledge and skills to become valued contributing members of society and the sustainable living community.

Attendees can expect to live in housing that is different and maybe more environmentally friendly and sustainable than they might be used to. Breakfast is provided, no other meals guaranteed, but food grown on this land is plentiful and readily available. A community kitchen, composting toilets, hot showers, and laundering equipment are provided. Interns who help maintain the spa facilities, including steam vents and bathing pools, and swimming pools, are welcome to use them when guests are not.

Previous Courses

Interns in previous programs learned organic gardening and permaculture. Core instruction includes site selection, clearing land for planting and creating growing beds, composting and mulching, researching and applying successful local permaculture activities, soil preparations, soil improvement, gardening skills, and tool usage that is very different in Hawaii than elsewhere due to limited soil above lava rock. Seasonal topics and instruction will include orchard maintenance, plant propagation, harvesting, processing, and formulating products from harvests.

Our main food production sources from vegetable gardens within and outside a large greenhouse, aquapontics, beds for larger plants and root crops, raised beds in the greenhouse for leafy greens, many banana trees and citrus groves, and other tropical fruits including avocados, rollenia, longon and lychee. The gardens are carefully prepared with appropriate organic amendments and micro-organisms to create a healthy and nourishing soil for our food plants that amounts to less labor and inputs and more food. The plants are tended by many cultural methods such as working with the moon phases and doing the basics and specific tasks for a particular plant.

The soil is treated as a living medium that influences plant growth and nutritional value. Mineralizing the soil and using appropriate microbial innoculants help make food more nutrient dense. This also creates conditions that provide more sustainable yields from the soil with less costs and labor.

Microbial innoculants come in many forms from compost to em-1 and IMO's. Here again our materials are generated on the site. Composting is performed by static piles for very large amounts, aerobic piles, indoor composting and vermi-composting. Except for static piles among the many methods an intern can learn will be how to create and complete composting of an aerobic pile and indoor composting by creating the proper carbon to nitrogen ratio, maintaining moisture, “turning the pile,” trouble-shooting and correcting improper composting and building and/or maintaining an earthworm bin for vermi-composting.

A well planned site and prepared soils leads to planting either by direct seeding or from young plants from our greenhouse nursery. Plants are seeded or set out in the beds in guilds and companion planted and then cared for until harvest or until gone to seed. To get to those points daily observation, diligence, action, and praise will become routine to an intern.

The greenhouse beds are intensively cultivated with square-foot gardening methods to provide our leafy greens. We want to double the greenhouse bed space and go vertically as well, so constructing beds from pallets is also taught.

Gardening and cultural skills and safe tool use is hands on teaching and learning at the sites. Weed control strategies and insect control strategies will be taught and implemented using various methods from cover cropping to companion planting. Also living mulches, smother/cover crops, shallow tilling, mulching, solarizing, and animal systems will be used. More esoteric methodology will be seed sowing planting and gardening tasks done in the proper moon phases to influence the gardens growth. Frequency resonance, or “biosonic” research and techniques to complement other plant growth options are recommended.

Sustainable Living

Our housing accommodations for interns varies from small cabins to tent campsites depending on availability, and it may be an adjustment to rural living and daily life.

Showers are taken in the saunas utilizing the natural heat for hot water showers and we have a laundry facility on site. Future plans call for a communal outdoor shower facility with grey water disposal to gardens.

We use composting toilets and learn to maintain and compost humanure properly. There are indoor kitchen facilities available for use and food storage; social areas to use, telephones available, and wi-fi, but no cell phone coverage is available to the entire area.

Pahoa town is approximately 5 miles from the KOH with many grocery stores, excellent restaurants, and shops for grocery and living needs.

Rules and regulations

No alcohol allowed on premises.

Smoking is discouraged and restricted to outdoor designated areas.

Work 24-32 hours per week depending on administrative direction. Work days start at 8 AM.

Basic pleasantness, respect, and tolerance for others that share the space, including guests.

Quiet hours from 10PM-8AM.

Personal hygiene, including caring for appearance, is expected.

For a more complete set of rules and regulations refer to our application form.