The members of the Shiloh Baptist Church choir in Blackstone, Va., had just arrived outside another church about 20 miles away for a revival meeting Tuesday. But they would not be singing that night.

Just as the choir’s van turned to enter the parking lot of Mount Zion Baptist Church, a truck hauling a trailer full of metal slammed into the vehicle, killing four people and injuring seven more, the Virginia State Police said.

Lafayette Dickens, a member of the choir who was traveling to the revival in his own car, arrived on the scene in Dinwiddie County, Va., shortly after the crash.

“I was coming from work and thought I was going to go there and it was going to be a routine church program, because we sing at different churches all the time,” he said Wednesday. “I thought it was going to be like any other time, but I guess the good Lord had other ideas.”