Diping Bridge Washout

Here is an excerpt from a 28 July article in the Shenzhen Daily:

Floods Cause Heavy National Losses

"Floods destroyed a 121-year-old bridge under State protection in Diping Township in Southwest China�s Guizhou Province on June 20. The Dong ethnic style bridge was destroyed when almost 200 mm of rain caused the Nanjiang River to flood. Considered to be representative of Dong ethnic construction, the bridge was put under State protection in 2001. The county government has asked residents along the river to join in the restoration work."

For a note on the significance of such a loss, refer to the comments on architecture in the Society section of the DongTeam General Information page. This particular bridge had all the normal frescos of blessing, along with cross nationality focused scenes of local Miao festivals, and even a very modern reference to automatic guns in a war scene (obvious evidence that the bridge has already had some work done in those 121 years). Maybe the local folks will raise this bridge even further off the river basin than it aready was in the light of the tragic floods this year.

Because this will be a huge shock to the Dipnig Dong folks, keep this in your prayers as well. Pray for them to see that this event is not causesd by angry gods or unappeased spirits. Pray that this will somehow help them to realize that nature is completely out of the control of the gods they serve, but rather in the control of the one Creator God who made all things.