A letter from our founder
A promise thirty-five years in the making.
Dear Friend,
Thirty-five years ago, I served in Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice’s cabinet as head of Health and Human Services. I called him Chief. We shared a simple belief: Americans could, and would, take care of one another if government would get out of the way.
So we started Faith and Families.
I traveled to churches across Mississippi, asking people of every denomination to help meet the needs right in front of them. They answered. They delivered food to families and arranged child care so parents could go to job interviews. On Saturday mornings, they cleaned up streets and helped make their towns beautiful again. People showed up for their neighbors. And it worked.
Then national politicians took notice. They wanted to expand it with federal funding. What began as neighbors helping neighbors became another government program. Somewhere along the way, the very thing that made it work was lost. Faith and Families faded away.
In the years that followed, I led disaster response teams around the world, from Haiti to the Philippines, and through hurricane after hurricane along our own Gulf Coast. But I never forgot what we’d built in Mississippi. Neither did Chief. When he became very ill, we spent a few days together. I asked him, “Chief, what is your biggest regret?” “That we stopped Faith and Families,” he said. Then he made me promise that one day I would start it again.
Some promises stay with you until you keep them.
In the summer of 2025, after beating cancer and regaining my strength, I launched F3: Faith. Friends. Family. This time, I added Friends. Because it takes all of us. A few months later, I was called to serve in the Trump Administration, leading FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery. I put F3 on pause and moved from Alabama to Washington, D.C. Now that commitment is complete, and I’m home in Alabama. I came back with a deeper understanding of how government responds to emergencies and a stronger conviction about the work ahead.
We need people who know their neighbors. Churches ready to open their doors. Organizations with the tools and relationships to act when help is needed.
That’s why I’m relaunching F3.
F3 brings together people who need help and people ready to give it. We connect churches, houses of worship, ministries, community groups, businesses, and response organizations so they can share resources, prepare for emergencies, and serve together. There are good people doing this work every day, often without recognition. We want to help them reach further and make it easier for others to join them.
At a time when so much feels uncertain, helping one another is something we can choose to do. Right now. Right where we live.
I’m keeping my promise to Chief. And I’m answering a call I’ve carried for years.
C.S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce:
“Will you come with me to the mountains? It will hurt at first, until your feet are hardened. Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows. But will you come?”
C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
That’s my question for you.
Will you come?
Visit our website, check out all the cool things we’re doing and the tools that are already online, and join F3. Bring your church, your organization, or simply your willingness to help. If you’re able, please give to help this work grow.
Let’s stick together and see what God does next.
Gregg Phillips
Founder, F3: Faith. Friends. Family.