BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Serving as Miss Oklahoma was a full-time job and had required her to drop out of college, where she’d been a piano performance major. She was provided with an apartment, a car and a chaperone. Her schedule for the year was set, and it was rigorous. Crisscrossing the state, she made multiple appearances every day. She only got to go home to Altus to visit family a few times during the whole year. Yet Nancy loved every moment of the experience—from the travel, to meeting new people, to knowing that her dad had become the most famous man in the café he frequented back home. Nancy was ecstatic that she would be competing in the Miss America contest. So were the people of Altus. Along with her family, more than 100 residents traveled to Atlantic City to cheer her on. Nancy had hoped to make it to the Top 10 finalists, which she did. She finished the competition as fourth runner-up for Miss America. A Surprise Development Now, with the national competition over, Nancy’s responsibilities as Miss Oklahoma had also ended. It was time for a new chapter in her life. Only two things dimmed the joy she felt about the future. One was the fact that, at 20 years old, Nancy suffered from severe back pain. Second, though Nancy knew it was important that she marry the right person she had somehow gotten out of the will of God. He’d let her know that after she accepted a young man’s marriage proposal. Nancy had broken off the engagement, but how was she supposed to find the plan of God for her life? “After I’d broken that engagement, I locked myself up and prayed in the Holy Ghost for three weeks, for hours a day,” Nancy recalls. “I read the Word and prayed, seeking God. At the end of those three weeks, I attended some services where the wife of a local minister invited me to the back room. She wanted to introduce me to someone. I went, and she introduced me to a man named Ed Dufresne. He’d been in ministry for 15 years and had pastored for eight-and-a-half years. “Although our mutual friend kept encouraging Ed to call me, he didn’t. It bothered him that he was 20 years older than me. What he didn’t realize was that age didn’t bother me at all. When fulfilling my duties as Miss Oklahoma, I’d traveled with a companion much older than me. During that time, I was often around those who were older. I didn’t give the situation much thought because I was trusting God to get me where I needed to go.” Two weeks later, Nancy was visiting her sister in Texas when Ed called. “Tomorrow is my birthday,” he explained. “I thought I’d fly to Texas to take you out to celebrate.” That didn’t sound good to Nancy. She didn’t know him well and thought it might feel awkward. “Thank you,” she said, “but I don’t want you going to all that trouble. I’ll be back in Tulsa next week. Maybe we can get together then.” Leaving to go play tennis, Nancy stopped. Turning to her sister she said, “When he calls back to say he’s coming, come get me.” Five minutes after she arrived at the tennis court, her sister pulled up. “He’s coming tomorrow,” she said. On their first date, Ed said, “Did you know that in 10 years you’ll be in a wheelchair?” “No, but I’ve been having serious back trouble.” A Word From God “I’d never been on a date with anyone who’d had a very accurate word of knowledge for me,” Nancy says. “It was about two years later that he again ministered to me about my back and it was healed. I decided to go back to Tulsa early and suggested that Ed cancel his flight and drive back with me, which he did. “That trip gave us hours to talk and start the process of getting to know one another. In addition, I’d seen my family so little during my tenure as Miss Oklahoma that I missed them. On the way back, I stopped in Altus and visited them, and they got to meet Ed. “A few days later Ed said, ‘I’m falling in love with you. If you don’t feel the same way, we need to end this.’” What? Nancy had enjoyed getting to know Ed, but she wasn’t falling in love with him. She’d only been around him a few times. The next day, as Nancy drove across Tulsa, she repented. “God, I can’t believe I’ve gotten myself into another mess! I’m so sorry. I don’t know how I did this.” The voice that answered her was so loud that Nancy whipped her head around to see who had climbed into her car. No one else was there, yet the word still reverberated inside her two-seat Fiero. 14 : BVOV

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