By profession, Brent M. Detter is a registered landscape architect for ELA Group Inc. in Lititz.

But his passion is volunteering for Engineering Ministry International, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The nonprofit Christian development organization consists of architects, engineers and design professionals who donate their skills to help impoverished children and families around the world.

Someday, Detter, 38, of Landisville, wants to work full time for the group. But until then, the husband and father of three children will settle for one mission trip every 12 to 18 months.

Detter, a member of Manheim's LCBC Church, recently returned from his second EMI adventure, 10 days in Kijabe, Kenya.

LCBC introduced him to mission work in 2007, when he went on a Samaritan's Purse mission trip to Biloxi, Miss., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"I came home and thought, 'Wow!'" he said. "Being able to help with the skills I have got me motivated."

The York native is a graduate of West Virginia University and a former combat engineer for the U.S. Army Reserves.

In 2008, he took his first mission trip with EMI, to China -- where Christians are "on fire," he said. He and his wife, Keri, had been to China earlier to adopt their daughter, Eve, 5. Son Eli, 3, was adopted from Haiti. Son Gabe, 12, arrived the natural way.

The 24-hour trip to Kenya took him two hours northwest of Nairobi to the Rift Valley.

"It was not what I expected. At 7,000 feet elevation, the Rift Valley is green and lush, as beautiful as you could imagine. It was in the mid-80s and breezy every day and 60s at night."

He used his two-week vacation, and raised half the $2,800 cost with letters to friends requesting support, paying the balance himself.

Detter was part of a 24-member team, members of which came from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Taiwan and Uganda.

The team's task was to design a 10-year master plan to double the size of the Africa Inland Church Kijabe Hospital, which has sporadic electricity and outdated water and sewer systems, he said.

"We did six months of design work in 10 days. We try to get 80 percent of the work done in country."

The Christian mission hospital has no heat or air conditioning and is staffed entirely by volunteer doctors from around the world.

It annually sees more than 100,000, patients, who travel about 75 to 125 miles on dirt roads from poor, rural villages to get there.

The hospital staff prays for all its patients, about 30 percent of whom are Muslims.

"The hospital's first and foremost mission is to spread the gospel," Detter said. "Medicine is just a tool."

Signs posted throughout the hospital -- in a country notorious for corrupt government and rigged elections -- warn that bribes are not accepted.

To make the most of his time, Detter got up at 6 a.m. and didn't go to bed until 1 or 2 a.m.

"The team leader was adamant that we take an hour or two each day to interact with the locals. 'That's the reason you're here,' he said."

He treated eight people for dinner. The tab was about $6.

A hospital employee invited Detter home to dinner. He was the first white person his children had met.

"He and his wife and four children lived in a room no bigger than (a conference room)."

They invited him to church, a 11-w-hour arduous hike to a three-hour Baptist service in Swahili.

"It went by quickly. There was lots of singing and dancing. It was very loud. ... I met some really strong Christians.

"You think you're going to make a difference, but you're really blessed by the people you meet."

For more information on EMI, see www.emiworld.org.