From May 9th to 12th, the national pilgrimage of Belarusian rovers took place. They started their walk from the village Soly and went to Gudagai to the Mother of God.

The national pilgrimage gathered rovers from all over the country including such towns as Minsk, Gomel, Grodno, Vitebsk, Borisov, Pastavy, Lyntupy. If one had joined this route, he would really have experienced the European dimension of Scouts of Europe as we were joined by the rovers from the cities of Zolochyv and Lviv (Ukraine). They came together with a deacon. And, perhaps, the most interesting guest was a young man from Sweden, who came to learn our experience in the development of FSE scouting, as his country currently does not have a Scouts of Europe organization.

The main gift was not only great weather for all the days of the pilgrimage, but the opportunity of meeting good people along the way. Many villagers blessed the rovers and were happy to see so many young devout men celebrating their catholic faith. In one of the villages – Zhuprany – rovers taught the children some scout games. By the way one of the most beautiful churches in Belarus is situated in that village, the funds of which were raised by the famous Belarusian poet and democrat Francis Bogushevich who is also buried there. This man also took part in the 1863-1864 Kastys Kalinouski uprising, which was the theme of the camp fire which took place on the same day. After the camp fire, Pavel Belski had his Rover Departure ceremony to become the 5th RS in Belarus.

The pilgrimage ended with a 3-mile Way of the Cross in forests and fields near the village of Gudagai which was a breathtaking spiritual experience.

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