Chosen 300 Ministries Executive Director Brian Jenkins Returns Home After Testing Positive For COVID-19 During Mission Trip
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The executive director of Chosen 300 Ministries is back in Philadelphia after being stuck for nearly two weeks in Guyana, South America. Eyewitness News spoke to Brian Jenkins about his ordeal and his message to others.
"I'm grateful that I was able to come out of the ordeal but I'm also grateful that I went through," he said.
Jenkins is now back in Philadelphia after spending 10 days quarantined in Guyana. He flew to the South American country in early January.
"It's a tremendous blessing to be back in the U.S. I've been through a tremendous ordeal but I think everything works out the way God plans it to," Jenkins said.
Similar to his work in Philadelphia, Jenkins was in Guyana on a mission to help the homeless. But upon his arrival, he tested positive for coronavirus which he says was a false positive.
Per Guyana's rules, he tested negative twice before he left the United States.
The positive result led him to be held up in a hospital with only a twin size bed and a small table, and because the facility housed COVID-positive patients, he says he rarely left his room
"This is the outside of the facility here. I'm free to go downstairs into the yard if I want it's kind of like prison if you ask me," Jenkins said in a video during his quarantine.
Elected officials including Sen. Bob Casey had to intervene to get Jenkins released. He had tested positive for coronavirus in early December.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says test results can come back positive for up to three months without the person being contagious.
And with his service at the Municipal Services Building Sunday morning, on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he says it was worth the sacrifice.
"The reality is that we are going to have things that disappoint us, challenges that we face we're going to have to suffer for the cause of our work but we do it because of the fact that we love God and it's our commission," said Jenkins.
And as for his health, Jenkins says he continues to test negative, including as recently as Sunday morning.
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