Volunteers frame walls during St. Luke Lutheran Church and School's 2017 House Build Servant Day. The church members are tackling an even bigger project Saturday.

Volunteers plan to frame out a multifamily home in the parking lot of St. Luke Lutheran Church, 330 Hannahstown Road, Saturday.

The third annual House Build Servant Day promises to turn the church's lot in Jefferson Township into a construction site. The church is sizing things up from its past two years, said one of the event's main organizers, Brenda Fett, the church's mission outreach director.

“It's a great opportunity for the congregation to come together and serve,” Fett said.

This year's home, Fett explained, is a dormitory- style building intended to serve as a shelter house for those in need. She said it's roughly equivalent to building two houses.

Doug Miller, a member of the church and an employee of James D. Miller & Sons Construction of Cabot, confirmed that this year's project will be more to handle than last year's construction.

Miller arranges the lumber for the project each year.

Saturday morning, the team will have 1,200 studs and well over 1,000 boards of various lengths to use. The walls are going to be 9 feet high, he said.

“We've got a lot of lumber to try to use up,” Miller said. “But we had all 110 walls built last year in a little over three hours.”

Miller recently visited the house the church members built last year for the house's grand opening. It's in a small town in Louisiana between Baton Rouge and Denham Springs that was flooded in a large rainstorm, he said.

The home's recipients were “so grateful for everything,” he said.

This year's building is heading to Oklahoma. It will be built as wall panels and shipped in pieces.

“This is what we're called to do,” Miller said. “To help our fellow man. We don't know who we're helping, but someone down the line is going to get this, and it's going to help them.”

Last year's event involved about 250 people, Fett said. About 150 to 175 were outside working on the house, while the rest were inside the church working on several related projects.

This year, some will write greeting cards for military personnel. Others will run a soup kitchen, cooking and packing soup to be distributed to food pantries.

New this year is a knitting drive. Knitters and crocheters will spend the day making blankets for newborns. The blankets will be distributed to nearby hospitals.

Also new is an area where children can take a break from the work in a supervised area.

Of course, the main event is the construction project filling the parking lot.

“The kids just love to be out there pounding nails,” Miller said.

The day's events begin with a breakfast at 8:15 a.m. Saturday at the church's campus. Work generally lasts until the early afternoon.