Why am I involved in the Mission Ad Gentes project?

I was fortunate in being present in Sri Lanka at the time Brother Seán Sammon presented this project. I witnessed the great enthusiasm the news aroused among the representatives from around the Marist world, a sign that the Lord was calling us to move more decisively and effectively towards the immense world of Asia.Why have I become involved in this project? It is not a question which requires a great deal of reflection, nor detailed explanation. I can formulate it in the following way:1. My formation from the age of 11 to be a missionary. My language formation in English, French, Italian and Spanish, and I must complement those to work in India (West Bengal)2. My desire has never been extinguished although it has suffered some setbacks, because the call has been very strong and the voices of the Lord and the Institute continue to resonate powerfully in my heart: ?especially for the most needy?.3. There are needy all over the world, but the Marist workers to respond to these needy are very thinly spread and Asia does not have many vocations.4. When the call became official, I did not ask if I should respond but for what reasons I should respond, so clear was the new direction of the Institute opening up, the force with which the call was made, and the great echo I felt within myself urging me to this project.5. And here is my last motivation: the reason of the heart which knows better than reason itself how to discover what is essential among the preferences of Jesus, Our Good Mother, and Champagnat: ?especially for the most needy.?I want to learn from the poor and the simple, I want to be admitted into their lives, I want to consecrate the force that remains to me in serving projects for their improvement so that the redemptive horizon which announces the Kingdom of God never disappears.________________Brother Santiago Fernández García.Province of « Compostela» Davao, 14 September 2010