Canton Lutheran Church completes bike ride fundraiser

CANTON, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Last month, Dakota News Now told you about a pastor's unique idea to raise money for flood relief in Canton by biking to their worship service.

On Sunday morning, he followed through on that mission and embarked on a 23-mile journey.

Previous story: Historic church raising flood relief funds with unique idea "We have a road ahead of us as a congregation to recover from this, to do some envisioning, to think about what God wants us to do in the future," said Pastor Jon Splichal Larson of the Canton Lutheran Church.

The road ahead was taken in the literal sense by Splichal Larson. His unique idea has already raised thousands of dollars and their journey continued to remind them of what they have in each other and in their faith.

They have continued to find ways to focus on the positives.

"As we continue to recover from this flood, I knew we had to do something active and something fun for all ages," Pastor Jon said.

Unsurprisingly, many in the congregation were all in with the plan, including Melinda Larson.

She was one of three who joined Pastor Jon from Sioux Falls in the dark at 7:00 a.m. all the way to the church, which was no easy feat.

They picked up a few more at the Canton Barn, turning four into a flock of over twenty.

"You know, you see people come together in adversity. It happens a lot of times for a lot of different reasons and this time it was because of the flood," Melinda said.

The group's route went by Lake Alvin in an effort to be safer than taking Highway 11 most of the way down.

They took multiple breaks to rest, take pictures and communicate with those waiting in Canton.

For safety, they also had two cars following them with their hazard lights on and in their last mile, they received an escort from a Canton Police officer.

"It was a beautiful morning. It was just a wonderful ride. We did have a big hill, but the rest of it was not real challenging and it was just such a pleasant time," Melinda said.

"This was really fun and a great turnout of people. I'm grateful for this, this was actually my one-year anniversary at this congregation this week and this was a really fun thing to do to get some people together," Pastor Jon said.

They arrived in style, but though they were tired, their day was far from over. They still needed to get ready for a worship service.

"I'm going to go in and change clothes and then I'm the music leader, so hopefully the cold air on the mouth doesn't do anything too negative," Melinda said.

The bike ride now behind them, they can look back on not just the struggle, but the triumph they credited to God.

"To do it in a joyful sense. This isn't just a downer about flooding and hard things, it's also about God bringing us out of it and giving us new life," Pastor Jon said. "This is a group of people that's very resilient and has hope deep within them. It's a history of this church that has existed for 156 years and has plans to do great things in our community still."

"We are experiencing it now as a church, that God really is sufficient in all situations," Melinda said.

Pastor Jon found time amidst his preparation for the 23-mile trek and a busy Canton homecoming week to prepare his sermon focusing on the youth of the church, the ones who will carry on their 156-year history into a new generation.

"This is the beginning of their life in the church and they will be our future leaders," Melinda expressed.

Though the church is facing difficult times, Splichal Larson said that their hearts go out to those facing tragedy in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and a portion of the donations will also go to hurricane relief efforts .

Pastor Jon was very thankful to those who helped with this mission and encouraged them.

People honked or waved to cheer them on as they passed the bikers, Spoke-N-Sport lent him a bike for the ride, the Canton Barn allowed them to use their parking lot as a meeting place, the Canton Police Department was eager to help set up an escort in the final stretch and a Lincoln County Sheriff's deputy checked on them during a stop along the way.