About Us

It Started With A Calling

Kingdom Kids Haiti is a ministry of GloryWorks, a U.S. non-profit which evolved from Rev. Tom Pokorni's 1982 call to bless the poor in the cities of the world.

In the spring of that year, Tom Pokorni began to pray about where to begin his outreach. His thoughts led him to think of India and China, two of the poorest countries in the world at the time, but God spoke a surprising word to him: “You still have things to learn in the United States, and I still want to use you here in this country.”

Tom’s heart was for the poorest of the poor and so he sought the Lord as to where the poorest people in America lived.

On September 20, 1982, he was praying about this when Tom saw a map of the United States in his mind’s eye. He began to think of the impoverished towns along the Mexican border and saw them on the map – in Matamoros and El Paso in Texas, then Tucson in Arizona.

Stage 1 - Miami

Suddenly, however, Miami, Florida, lit up with a bright, supernatural light. Tom knew in his heart that it was the Lord directing him. Miami was packed with nearly one hundred thousand newly landed Haitian refugees. This was surely the place God was telling him to go.

Then, as he focused on Miami and let it settle in his heart, other lights began to shoot down from Miami across the nations of the Caribbean basin. Finally, as he watched, a thicker light shot up the east coast to New York City.

Two weeks later, on October 4, 1982, with the blessing of his ministry leaders, Tom set out for Miami in his 1954 Chevy pickup truck. His few worldly possessions were in the bed of the truck – a couple boxes of books and clothes. Tom didn’t know anyone in Miami, but he was following the Vision God had given him.

 

 

Stage 2 - The Caribbean

For nearly twenty years Tom Pokorni worked in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood. He planted Community Christian Church, raised up ministries, and sent out workers into the Lord’s harvest field.

Then, on November 1, 2009, while attending a conference with Heidi Baker, missionary to the poor in Mozambique, the Lord spoke clearly into Tom’s heart again: “I assigned Miami and the Caribbean to you in the 1982 vision I gave you. Now it’s time to reach the poor in the Caribbean.”

Just two months after this mandate from the Lord, Haiti suffered a devastating 7.5 earthquake in its capitol city, Port-au-Prince. 1.5 million people were left homeless. Tom immediately knew this was where GloryWorks was to plant it’s first Caribbean base.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Two weeks later he was on his way to Haiti, determined to plant the first GloryWorks Caribbean ministry to the poor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

In September of 2010 that happened. Through divine appointments Tom met Russell Cox, a Virginian with a heart for Haiti, and then Fanes Priva, founder of Royaume Des Enfants, (Kingdom Children) in eastern Port-au-Prince.

It became immediately clear that what Fanes was doing in Port-au-Prince was almost identical to what Tom had done in Miami in 1982. The two men bonded immediately and in November, 2010, Royaume Des Enfants - now known as Kingdom Kids, Haiti - became a ministry of GloryWorks. Since then the work has grown and become deeply established in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince.

Our goals include multiplying the Kingdom Kids program throughout Port-au-Prince, and then to replicate it in 10 cities of the Caribbean by the year 2020. Tom Pokorni believes the Lord has called him to mentor a new generation of missionaries, helping them with the wisdom and experience he gained working twenty years with Haitian youth in Miami.