About Us

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Thanks for visiting our “Sudanese” e3 Partners’ website. e3 Partners is a church planting ministry. The name stands for Equipping Believers to Evangelize the Lost to Establish reproducing churches. We’ve worked in Sudan since about 2002, but the Lord has helped us really pick up steam starting in 2006. Take a look around. View the videos, read our blog, consider coming with us by clicking on the Trips tab, and support the work by giving with the link above. Feel free to drop us a line from the Contact page as well.

e3 in Sudan
Our overarching goal is to plant as many healthy, reproducing churches in Sudan as God directs and allows. Jesus told us, right before He ascended, to go and make disciples. We believe that the local church is what God established to nurture that discipleship process through the worship of Him, the equipping of the saints, and the sending of missionaries.

Sudan is worn-torn, ravaged and devastated. The United Nations declared it one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world, and Foreign Policy rated it the number one most failed state in the world in 2007. At war, really since 1956, and intensely from 1983 through 2003, Sudan is lacking a generation of leaders. Leaders either killed in the war or who have fled to refugee camps in neighboring countries.

But we serve the creator, redeemer God. Where disaster strikes, opportunity beckons. To address this issue of leaders, we’ve begun a bible school to train up the next generation of pastors, missionaries, and church leaders. We also take North Americans on short-term, church-planting mission trips throughout the year. Can God plant a church in a week? Come find out. Finally, following Jesus’s model of discipleship, we are focusing on a few leaders, and we pray that God will do the multiplying. Because we believe, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.” May the Lord bless the people of Sudan.

Meet Our Team

DavidDavid Kaya - e3 Sudan National Director

The son of a pastor, David Kaya has a heart and a calling to pull his people in Sudan out of darkness into the saving Light of Christ. David’s vision is to plant healthy, reproductive, disciple-making churches throughout Southern Sudan. His specific heart for pastors led him to create a Bible School in Kajo Keji, which he dreams of becoming a full seminary one day. His primary instructor calls it our “pastor factory.”


David is married to Gloria and has four beautiful daughters, Nancy, Cathy, Marklin Ruth, Taylor, and one son, Mike. He is a graduate of Global Theological Seminary in Jinja, Uganda.


MikeMike Congrove - e3 Sudan Strategy Coordinator

In 2004, the Lord called Mike out of his corporate job at at&t and into church planting at e3 Partners. Sitting in Rwanda in December 2005, Mike met David Kaya and heard his testimony of the struggles David faced in Sudan. God pricked Mike’s heart then to go to Sudan. In August 2005 while in a tent in Sudan, the Lord gave him Paul’s words to the Romans, “And thus I aspired to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would build on another man’s foundation; but as it is written, ‘They who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand.’” Now Mike follows Christ’s call to yoke up with David to establish new churches in Sudan.


Mike is married to Ali and has three children, Alexa, Weston, and Erin Kaya.



EdwardEdward Dima

Edward is our primary instructor in the Kajo Keji Bible School. A man with the gift of teaching and the utmost integrity. A true student of the Word of God. Edward is married to Rose and has a son, Joel.



imageKenneth Dila

Kenneth also teaches in our Bible School and has been instrumental in many church plants in the area. Kenneth is married to Mary.





imagePatricia Caroom

Patricia is our Southeastern Regional Leader for e3 Sudan. Patricia has a heart for not only the unreached in Sudan, but she also is well trained in orality. She’s working with key leaders in that region of Sudan to develop strategies and tactics for church multiplication.

Patricia is married to Doug and they have four, wonderful grown children.


David and Missy Williams
David and Missy Williams are directing the e3 Sudan Microfinance effort. You can read much more about David and Missy here.

imageHeather Sumner
Heather lives in Sudan, working to get the microfinance operation up and running. Heather’s a graduate of Kennesaw State University and was e3 Sudan’s first ever intern. During that stint, she lived in Southern Sudan teaching health and starting women’s discipleship groups.

imageDr. Len Renfer

Dr. Renfer has led several trips to Sudan where he’s overseen the combination of a church-planting campaign and a medical clinic.

imageClaudia Adame

Claudia has co-led several trips to Sudan with Len Renfer where she’s overseen the combination of a church-planting campaign and a medical clinic as well. Claudia is on e3’s cabinet and is the Director of Human Resources for e3 as well.

imageRobert Gunn


Robert Gunn began working with Dove Jackson in 1970 with some of the first short-term mission trips from America. Robert, and his wife, Jane ran a successful stone/tile company for years until retiring in 2008. Robert has served on e3 Partners’ Board of Directors for a number of years. Today, he and Jane are working with the Austin community to reach an unreached people group in Southern Sudan.


SteveSteve Grote

Steve has come alongside the Sudan ministry at e3 and has quickly become an integral part of the team. Steve’s using this internship to specify his calling in ministry.


Steve is married to Mollie and they’ve just celebrated the birth of their first son!. Steve graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary in the Fall of 2007. He’s also a proud Florida Gator!

imageDavid Hicks
David went to Sudan for the first time in September 2008. Today, he’s leading trips to Sudan, and has a desire to reach the people of Sudan with the Gospel. David is a University of Arkansas grad who married his high school sweetheart, Stephanie. They have two lovely twin daughters.



Jeff Stathatos
Jeff has been a long-time friend to e3 Partners. He went to Sudan in September 2008 and God captured his heart for the Sudanese. Jeff, along with David Hicks, will be primarily leading trips for Prestonwood Baptist Church. Jeff is a Texas A&M chemical engineer graduate who has most recently worked in the Technology Security field. Jeff is married to Zora and has four terrific boys.

imageKarlis Gruzins
Karlis went to Sudan in January 2008 where he not only planted a church, but spent additional time teaching carpentry at the Bible School. Karlis is planning on leading trips to more remote parts of Sudan. He is married to Kelli and has a son, Hudson and a daughter, Harper.


Gloria Stewart


imageAmy Vrandenburg




ToddTodd Szalkowski - e3 Church Planter

Todd left a partnership with Ernst and Young to follow God’s call to e3. Todd leads church planting trips in various countries around the world, including Sudan. He has a passion for training leaders and the unreached. Learn more about Todd and sign up for his trips to Sudan here.

Todd is married to Amy and has two beautiful and talented daughters, Avery and Wesley.