I cannot believe that it has been so long since I made my initial post. I do appreciate the nudging from all of you dear friends, except the one that said my bride looks like a movie star and I look like a David Cassidy wannabe.
Anyway, strange things are afoot at the circle K.
I began working in 1981, and was mentored by a talented geophysicist by the name of John Button. We became good friends, and had wonderful times together. He later moved to San Francisco, but before he left he gave me his old pickup truck. He really enjoyed the California weather, and loved spending time on a sailing yacht he bought. With scientific and management talent, his career soared and he was already very well off as a young man.
Skiing in 1982 with John
I sent John a Christmas card in 1985 with a picture. This was the last communication I sent to John.
Christmas 1985
After 1985, I lost touch with John. Others asked about John because they knew we were friends but I always answered that I was unable to locate him. Finally, in June of 2003, over fifteen years since I had contact with John, I decided to try hard to find him. I hired an Internet search firm to track him down. Much to my astonishment, they located a John Button in Henderson, Nevada. I was not sure if this was him, so I sent an email to this address.
Following this, I went on a vacation cruise with the family. When I returned, there was a strange email in my inbox. It looked like it was typed by a child just learning to write and many words were misspelled. It was a greeting from someone by the name of John Button but it did not resemble anything that would come from such a talented guy.
I did not know what to make of it.
Following that, I received a note from his wife, Stacy. She told me that June 2nd, 2002, John was building a play set in the back yard for his young children. Somehow, a beam hit him on the head and nearly killed him. He lay on the ground in a stupor. When he got to the hospital, the news was grave. John had incurred permanent brain damage and would never fully recover.
Following this, he could no longer run his technology business. He had not yet signed his insurance papers and without them, he lost everything and went bankrupt. He had hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and no way to pay them. He still has very little income and no way out of the mess.
What I did not know is that two days before John received my email; he had found my picture from 1985 in his garage in Henderson, Nevada. He took the picture to his wife and with his unsteady voice said, “this is Mike, we need to find Mike”. Two days after that statement, he received an email from me after over fifteen years of silence. God heard the cry of a broken and brain damaged man and did something beyond coincidence.
I flew out to Henderson, Nevada to visit John. It was a bittersweet reunion seeing half the mind he once had. Yet even with that, John seemed to have a closer connection with God. I became impressed with John in an entirely new way.
John in 2003
Over the past two years, I have called John regularly and we have had wonderful fellowship. John asked if we could get together in late 2005, and I told him I thought we could. I kept putting him off and said maybe we could do it in early 2006.
Last week, I was sitting at the computer with my son as we were making plans to go to a conference together. Everything was pretty well set and I sat down to make airline reservations. I asked him where the conference was and he did not know. We looked up the name of the conference hotel.
It is in Henderson, Nevada.
I will write again after the conference in Henderson, Nevada, February 10th.
Mike
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