Accidental Prayer

Amanda Woodiel shares the journey of prayer over a particular intersection and how her prayer prepared her for the day when she would minister to strangers.  

When we moved into our home, I realized quickly that we were situated at a fairly dangerous traffic intersection. Our house is along a country road, but just behind us is a busy two-lane road that sees large truck traffic taking a shortcut across the countryside. Traffic on the big road doesn’t need to stop, but traffic on our road does.

I’m petrified of blood and injuries, so being the lone house at this intersection really scared me. My solution was to start praying over the intersection every day. This prayer was borne out of fear and self-interest. I didn’t want to be the one to be first on the scene. My prayer was simple: “I pray for this intersection today that no accidents would happen.”

A Prayer That Changed Over Time

As the days, weeks, and months rolled by and I prayed this prayer regularly, I realized that I could do more than just pray for safe travels at my intersection. So I started praying, “Lord, I pray for this intersection today and for safe travels for everyone who goes through it.” That felt nice. Instead of just praying over it so that I wouldn’t have to respond to an accident, I was praying for the entirety of their travels.

Another year went by. The intersection, although chock full of traffic, was really tame. There were one or two incidents there, but no one sustained any injuries. I started keeping a couple of bottles of water in my fridge just in case someone did get in an accident and needed it.

It occurred to me one day as I was turning onto the busy road that I seemed to care more about people’s physical safety than their spiritual health. That realization helped me see how persistently I prioritize the physical world over the spiritual world in my thinking. That day, the prayer changed to this: “I pray for our little intersection today — for safe travels for everyone who goes through it and for everyone’s souls, including our own.”

That is the form of the prayer I’ve sustained over the last three years. I pray it nearly every day, although sometimes I forget until I hear the squeal of tires. Over the years, repairmen, neighbors, and visitors have occasionally commented that they are surprised there aren’t more accidents at that intersection.

Witnessing an Accident

One day, I was at the end of my driveway waiting to turn left onto my country road so that I could then turn onto the big road. There was a car coming from the other direction waiting to cross the big road. Because my driveway is so close to the intersection, and I know from experience that people often speed across it once there is a break in the traffic, I decided to wait in my driveway until that person made it across and past my driveway. I saw him begin to cross, and then, to my horror, I watched as a semi truck going full speed T-boned the little car. It was my worst nightmare played out before my eyes.

I screamed for Jesus and grabbed my phone and called 911. I mechanically gave information to the woman on the other end and watched as the driver-side car door opened and a man rolled out onto the ground. By this time, another bystander had stopped and was attending to the driver. The emergency responder on the phone asked me how many passengers were in the car. “I don’t know,” I told her as I stared at the shattered rear window and imagined a child back there. “I’m so scared to go look.”

“Ma’am, calm down,” she said, which to me was strange because in my head I had been speaking in a level voice. “You have to go see.”

There was no one else in the car. The man who had pulled over to help was an EMT himself, and he went to check on the driver of the semi. The man who had been driving the little car got up and walked around to the other side. “Tell him to lie down,” the EMT called out to me. The man did, and I covered him up with a coat.

The very first words I said to him were, “I forgot to pray for the intersection today,” and I traced the sign of the cross on his forehead. His name was Jamie. He told me he had let the car insurance lapse on his car just a couple of months before. Although his car was totaled, he had no injuries beyond the initial shock.

On another occasion, a young woman driving in winter weather slid off of the road at our intersection. My daughter “happened” to notice her from an upstairs bedroom window and came down to tell us there was someone walking around. My husband went out to help and brought back a tearful Maya. I hugged her, patted her hair, and told her it was going to be okay. During our hour-and-a-half conversation while we waited on her dad, I heard hints that she has had a tough life for such a young woman. Maya, who was by this time sipping homemade hot chocolate, looked around our house and commented frequently, “It is so nice here. You are so kind.”

Prayer Changed Me

I wonder sometimes about that prayer that I have prayed for five years now. I strongly believe that it has blessed our intersection physically, and sometimes I imagine someone’s guardian angel urging her to take that route so that she can receive the prayer over her soul. I think about how the prayer has changed me, too. I started by being very worried about being the first responder, changed to praying for people’s travels in general, and finally landed on praying for people’s physical and spiritual safety. I believe all of those prayers changed me, too. They prepared me for the day when I would sit and watch an accident happen before my eyes and when I would comfort a crying young woman.

I still pray for Jamie and Maya as well as for our little intersection. I firmly believe that each of us has a “sweet responsibility” to pray for the place and people where we live. What neighborhood, what intersection, what school can you commit to praying for daily? Together we can, piece by piece, cover the world with prayer.

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Copyright 2026 Amanda Woodiel
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