This report from an e-mail update prepared by the Family Research Council...Coach Mike Holmgren led his Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl last Sunday. The team lost on the field, but key members of Coach Holmgren's family missed the game. Coach Holmgren's wife, Kathy, and Calla, one of their four daughters, were half a world away, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kathy Holmgren had been a medical missionary to Africa when the couple married, 35 years ago. Coach Holmgren gave his wife and daughter the trip as a birthday present. The Holmgrens are very active in the Evangelical Covenant Church. Kathy and Calla, a nurse and an obstetrician, respectively, are volunteering with the Northwest Medical Teams, a Portland, Ore., faith-based mission group.
Hundreds of millions tuned in to see Coach Holmgren's team perform at Ford Field, but his wife and daughter will perform for an audience of 300,000--the number of Congolese served by the medical center where the Holmgrens are working. Coach Holmgren was not swayed by all the media hype of "Super Sunday." "If I didn't have a foundation in my faith with Christ to keep me through the highs and lows of this week--and every week--this job would be very hard." As for his beloved wife and daughter missing Super Sunday, Mike Holmgren wasn't upset. He fully supports their life-affirming trip. "It's more important."
