God told her to pray for someone who wouldn’t make it. Hours later she found out why.

Pastor Mildred Watson of Macedonia AME Church was on her way to an annual conference in Florence Wednesday morning when she said she heard God telling her to pray.

“I was just riding along and he said to me ‘begin to pray. Somebody’s not going to get up in the morning. Somebody’s not going to be able to walk tomorrow,’” she said.

Watson prayed. She didn’t know who she was praying for, but she said she did as she was told.

Less than 24 hours later, a little before 3:30 a.m. she got a call from a church elder. A young man had crashed his truck through the wall of the church’s sanctuary.

The driver and sole passenger of the truck, 25-year-old Andrew Helmick was pronounced dead at the scene on Little River Neck Road.

He died of traumatic injuries sustained in the crash, according to Horry County Deputy Chief Coroner Tamara Willard. “He had just recently moved to North Myrtle Beach from Virginia.”

Helmick had also just celebrated his 25th birthday last month.

The crash happened about 3:15 a.m., according to Pat Dowling, North Myrtle Beach city spokesman.

Helmick, driving a Ford Explorer, was traveling north at a high speed when the vehicle ran off of Little River Neck Road and the driver over corrected, Dowling said.

The vehicle slid across the road and began rolling before crashing into Macedonia AME Church, Dowling said.

Helmick’s truck ripped through the southeast corner of the church’s sanctuary at 4652 Little River Neck Road, tearing through its cinderblock walls, taking out a stained glass window and shoving a back-row pew to a catty-corner position with its center aisle. Another pew was broken from the flying debris.

The collision caused a 15-foot-by-10-foot hole and sounded the church’s alarm. Eddie Stevenson, a church elder and trustee who lives nearby, got a call. He came to the scene and called Watson, who lives in Marion, with the details of what had happened.

Watson remembered that prayer.

“By me being obedient,” she said, “I had already prayed” for the young man who died.

“The Macedonia building has been damaged, but that was somebody’s child. … He loved somebody and somebody loved him,” she said. “A life was taken. … I don’t know what his last thoughts was.”

But Watson was grateful she had prayed. More prayers will be needed in the days ahead.

A city building inspector with North Myrtle Beach put a red sign on the main door of the sanctuary Thursday, telling people not to enter due to the damage. The sanctuary will be closed until an insurance agent can come to assess the damage and the church can start to board up the hole.

Watson said they will be having church services in the adjoining fellowship hall now until church members learn how and when they can rebuild.

This was the second time in five years a young man from a fatal collision has died in the church’s yard.

Five years ago, another young man was ejected from his vehicle after colliding with the church’s sign.

“It’s just people coming in here late at night, flying, and (they) don’t know the road,” said Alvin Bellamy, a parishioner at Macedonia AME Church. They “run up on these curves and don’t know them. We’re just trying to live and do the best we can around here, but it’s dangerous.”

Watson said the church property was annexed into the city a little more than a year ago and she has asked the city for more police patrols in the area.

To make a donation to the church, call 843-280-8255, email macedoniaamechurch@gmail.com or write to P.O. Box 24, North Myrtle Beach, S.C. 29597.

The North Myrtle Beach Department of Public Safety is assisting in the investigation into the fatal collision.

Photojournalist Jason Lee contributed to this report.

This story was originally published August 25, 2016 at 8:03 PM.