SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Wednesday’s weather didn’t keep members of a Brookings church from welcoming their new pastor. The First United Methodist Church in Brookings has waited for nearly a year for him to arrive from the other side of the world.

Pete Grassow and his wife Jenny are finally grounded after spending 29 hours in the air flying all the way from Johannesburg, South Africa. Both Grassow and the church are looking forward to where their journey together leads.

9,147 miles later, Pastor Pete Grassow and his wife Jenny have said goodbye to the sunshine of South Africa and hello a new adventure here in South Dakota.

“We come from a country of sunshine and sea. This will be a whole new experience, we have never driven in snow before,” Pastor Pete Grassow said.

Grassow is the new pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Brookings, and it’s all thanks to a friend, Rev. Jen Tyler, who serves at Evergreen UMC in Wahpeton, North Dakota, who called in a favor.

“Jen came out to South Africa and spent a year in mission working at my church in Cape Town. She was a lot younger back then, but the standing joke was one day we’re going to return the favor. And I said to her, ‘who on earth would want to go to the Dakotas,'” Grassow said.

Even though the church has been waiting for Grassow’s arrival since March, they are excited for him to finally be here.

“We’re looking forward to a new outlook on our church,’ Diane Culver, Staff Parish Relations, SPR,  Chairman of the church said.

And Grassow is looking forward to what he can learn from the church.

“I think this is the one joy of being human is that we connect with each other around the world. Irrespective of the country we come from, irrespective of all the roots, the one thing we have in common is that we’re all people together,” Grassow said.

So from sunshine to blizzard, the next stop for the Grassow’s is Brookings.

“We have everything ready for them, we have a house ready for them, everything is set up. All they have to do is crawl in bed and I’m sure that’s where they’ll want to be,” Culver said.

Grassow says right now he’s mostly just worried about driving in the snow.