Our Lady of Czestochowa stood at the shore of the Pacific Ocean, symbolically beginning the pro-life pilgrimage "From Ocean to Ocean". Upon conclusion of the meetings in Vladivostok, Our Lady was given a sincere and emotional sendoff, with sorrow and tears at her departure, after the early morning liturgy on 15 June at the Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas. In accordance with the instructions of the International Committee, our friends began their difficult journey from the shores of the Pacific through the lands of Ussuri and Siberia in a "pro-life van".
They drove down the peninsula, the landmark of Vladivostok, so that there they could take the icon out of the van, stand on the shore and symbolically put it into the water. The people took note of their maneuver and followed the van to the shore. They joyfully helped to carry the heavy icon, prayed with emotion and again bid farewell to the Mother of God.
In the meantime, it turned out that there were problems with the photographic equipment. Not only the camera but also the video recorder malfunctioned. With patience, however, they were able to make the historic photos which we have attached.
It was Friday evening and there were big traffic jams both coming into and going out of the city. It got late and the road to the train station was completely blocked. It was seemingly impossible to get to the train on time. It was hard to imagine the slaloms and tempo that Aleksey, the driver, was forced to contend with. Still, Galina and Igor were able to catch the train to Krasnoyarsk, while the Mother of God went by car on the roadless four-day journey.