Kristin Taylor has set up ministries in Tampa, Fla., to help the homeless and in the Pacific island of Samoa to help the needy.

She also is an internationally known singer who has turned over her talents to God so that he — not she or her beautiful voice — is glorified.

Also the mother of 13 — she and her husband have four children of their own and have adopted nine others — Taylor spoke about the importance of music in her ministries from her home in Riverview, Fla., with Register correspondent Carlos Briceno.

When did your love of music start?

I grew up in Massapequa, N.Y. My parents were spiritual Catholics — charismatics. They introduced me to a new realm of the Catholic Church; it was very lively and upbeat as far as the music was concerned. That's what really drew me in: the music. There was one specific girl; her name was Chris. She would always sing after Communion and one time, she sang this song called “A Little Less of Me,” which, in the '70s, was a famous song. I was only 6 or 7, and I remember after Communion I sat on the platform they had set up and sobbed and sobbed. That song just touched me so much. And I ran up to this girl after Mass and hugged her and told her I wanted to do exactly what she was doing when I grew up. I knew at that moment that the Lord had put something in my heart, that that's what I would do.

What did your parents say?

That I was too young to join the music group. You had to be 13. When I was 10, we moved from New York to Indiana. I was devastated because I thought I could never be in that group. When we went to Indiana, there wasn't really any music in our church. It was very quiet. They might have had an organ. About three years later, there was a priest who came to my parents' prayer group. He had a bunch of teen-agers with him. When I went in, I was listening to these teens sing, and it was the same feeling I had back in New York. I was so touched by it.

The next day they had this Life in the Spirit seminar. I came to observe. They had a laying-on of hands and prayed over people for the gift of the spirit to be released. As everyone was asking for a gift, like the gift of healing, I went up at the end, and I said, “Is it okay if I get prayed with, even though I didn't go to the seminar?” Father Christian (Moore) said, “Sure.” He prayed over me and asked me what I wanted as my gift. I said, “I want to be able to sing.” He laughed and said, “Oh, no, that's kind of a tall order.”

I definitely could not sing prior to this moment. And so when he prayed over me, I looked at him and said, “That's it?” He goes, “That's it.” I go, “You mean I can sing?” And he said, “I sure hope so, if we have to listen to you.”

That night, I went home and couldn't sleep. So I went into my sister's room, knowing she had a guitar. I picked up the guitar and immediately could play it, like I had been taking lessons for years. I began hearing my first song, and I wrote it down. I could actually sing it. It came all at once. I could hear the words and the music at the same time. I grabbed the guitar and woke my parents in the middle of the night to sing it to them. From that day forward, I began to hear songs constantly. And I began to play in the church that following Sunday, leading music in the church. I was around 13.

How has music affected your ministries?

It was always a very big struggle not to go secular. From the perspective of the world, I had a tremendous talent. People kept saying to me, “You should be famous.” I knew in my heart that this was a gift. I was so concerned, even at this young age, that if I used my voice for the world that God would take it from me as quick as I received it. I felt that, if I sang in bars, I would lose my gift. I had to learn very, very young to trust the Lord, rather than listen to what the world tells you.

Learning to trust the Lord has been such a blessing in ministry. Nothing I do makes sense in the eyes of business. How do we feed 1,000 homeless people a week with very few donors? How do we get 16 containers of medical supplies to Samoa, a country on the other side of the world, without money? Through faith, that's how.

What happened in Samoa that caused you to start this ministry?

Following one of the concerts, we went on a tour of the island. I fell in love with the people, the country and the culture. I was asked to come and pray over a newborn named Gordon, who was born without a face. He had one eye and a partial mouth and a huge mass on his face. Carol (Ah Chong, now director of THORN Ministries) and I went over there. We wanted to pray over Gordon, but the mother became fearful and turned us away. I returned to Samoa three months later to find that Gordon had not died. Once the mother heard I had returned, she begged for us to help her. Upon saying Yes, I knew that a ministry had been born. (THORN is an acronym for “Thankfully Helping Others Real Needs.”)

What is your message from the stage?

I try to inspire people to believe that the Lord is alive and well and wants them to know that he has a purpose for their life. Not everyone has to do what I'm doing. I just tell them what he has done through my life. I tell the silly stories, the funny stories, the sad stories, the trials. When you have this many children, you're going to have constant chaos. When you give your life to him, he doesn't remove all your problems. He hands you the cross and says, “Carry it!” I try to teach people that they can carry their cross, whatever it is, with the grace of Our Lady and the Holy Spirit. You can do it. And if you do it, people will see the fruits of what you do. That it could only happen through the Lord.

Carlos Briceno writes from Seminole, Florida.