FaithHealth Connector Tembila Covington wears many hats — including a big one for gardening.
By Les Gura
Born in California but raised in Burkina Faso in West Africa before returning to the United States for college, Covington worked for Walmart in management for 22 years, living in the Charlotte region. She followed a calling to ministry and graduated from the Apex School of Theology in Durham, then became founding minister-elder of Crossing Red Sea Ministries in the town of Rockingham.
In 2013, Covington moved to Forsyth County to join Americorps Vista for a yearlong project in school and community data-sharing. Once in Forsyth County, she became involved with the Ministers Conference of Greater Winston-Salem. This past summer, she helped the organization open a community garden on Cleveland Avenue to serve a population living in a food desert. Working with the Ministers Conference connected her with the FaithHealth movement as well.
After her Americorps appointment ended, Covington joined the Forsyth County Center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension. She runs gardening classes designed to empower the unemployed to become growers. The goal is to reduce grocery bills, provide them with healthier foods and allow them to make money by selling excess produce at farmers’ markets.
Able to bring some sort of hope
Covington was a natural choice as a FaithHealth Connector, and her work is an extension of what she’s been doing in her job and as a community volunteer.
“We have people who for whatever reason are stuck in a rut; they’re not able to get out of a place considered a food desert. They live in poverty,’’ Covington says. Whether it is working with residents who want to use the community garden or teaching teams of people through her job with the Cooperative Extension, gardening can be an answer, she says.
“This is an opportunity for them to produce, to get exercise, to relieve stress,’’ she says. “There are so many components to urban farming, and it especially provides access to local foods so people are eating healthier.”
As a FaithHealth Connector, Covington uses her church, Crossing Red Sea Ministries, to provide for those in need through its food pantry. Covington returns from her weekly services in Rockingham with food supplies for people in Forsyth County.
Resources, Covington says, are endless when the connections are available. For example, she helped a woman obtain money to pay for a generator when her electricity was off. The simplest connection of all, she says, is the human need for conversation and prayer.
“I believe I’m a person who is able to bring some sort of hope to another person’s life,’’ Covington says. “My intention as a Connector is to give them an opportunity to see light at the end of the tunnel.”
