One of the coolest things we have seen so far in South Sudan, we found as we visited Maridi. Not a very big town, Maridi would be the typical South Sudanese trading center, with one exception, there is clean water piped to the town center from a dam located on a hill a short distance from town. It is the only place we know of with clean/treated running water in South Sudan. This doesn’t mean the people don’t carry their water, they do; but they get it from water centers such as the one pictured on the right. The times are set and the water flows. Someone is present from the water board to write down your name and the amount of water you take. 
Clean running water – ingenious!
We received a very warm welcome and met many wonderful people during our stay in Maridi. However, we also heard from people living there about the presence of the bondage of divination. Not so unusual in Sub-Saharan Africa, divination and communicating with the ancestors is practiced in most countries; however, we understand Maridi is famous, as somewhat of an epicenter, for divination practices. Satan uses man’s desire for power and wealth, his desire to know the future; he plays on man’s unwillingness to walk by faith through trials and hardship and deceives man using other men who advertise miracles and healings through the power of divination.
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| Desperate people pay money to men like these who promise to heal their diseases. |
Pray for the people; of Maridi, of South Sudan, and of Sub-Saharan Africa as they deal with challenges and hardship.
Pray that they would search for the truth that comes only through Christ. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.”
Pray that Christians would have a ready word of witness and testimony concerning the wonders God performs in their lives daily.
Pray that all the peoples of Africa may know about and live in the abundant life which only comes through Christ Jesus.