SEND BG Winter Retreat

The SEND Bulgaria team held their winter retreat in the near by town of Borvets over the weekend of February 16th. I, Marc, helped plan it – but we had a lot of help, especially from a friend of ours, Albaina, whom is Bulgarian – very helpful when you have to book hotels and don’t speak the language.

It was a great time for the team to get together and reconnect with one and others. SEND BG is actually made up of two teams: the UTF team, which Lisa and I are a part of, and the “Sofia” team – which is a church planning team. We do hold monthly prayer meetings together – but we don’t have a lot of time for just socializing.

This weekend wasn’t just about socializing – we also had great facilitated discussion about our teams and what it takes to have an effective team functioning within a safe environment. We feel it was a great “bonding” experience with the “whole” team.

We also had a day to go sledding/skiing. I had planned on going skiing, however the fog was so bad you couldn’t see more than 20 ft. ahead of you. At my age – I wasn’t up for dodging people, trees or buildings. The benefit was that I got to go sledding with Drew – we had a blast!

One of the highlights of the trip was having dinner at “Baba Lozas,” This dinner was at the small home of a Bulgarian grandma who prepared a Bulgarian cuisine for all of us. In full Bulgarian dress she served wonderful fresh bread, salads and the main dish of pork, potatoes and vegetables baked in a ceramic pot. Baba Loza even gave us a personal concert as she sat in the corner spinning wool. It was a great time.