Churches in Boston are responding to provide support for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing through a website called BostonMarathonSamaritans.org. The website is set up as a partnership of TechMission, the Emmanuel Gospel Center and the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, all of which partner with hundreds of churches in the Boston area.
The goal of the website is to enable Boston’s church community to connect with and offer help to victims. The site enables people to post availability of housing, meal delivery and other needs. One professional counselor has already offered to donate free trauma counseling.
Andrew Sears, executive director of TechMission, explains his motivation for setting up the site: “As a father of two young boys, I went to bed crying last night about the pain that the Richard family and others must be feeling. In the morning I cried again as I was reminded of the parable of the Good Samaritan helping someone who had been beaten up and left for dead, and I thought ‘That is what Christians should be doing right now.’ So within a few hours, we had a website up and partnerships with church networks across Boston to help the victims.”
One of the main goals of the site is to help churches provide the long-term care needed for the families that were victimized by the Boston Marathon bombing.
The family Sears mentions belongs to Martin Richard, an 8-year-old boy who was killed in the attacks. Martin’s mother, Denise, suffered a brain injury from the bombings and underwent emrgency brain surgery on Monday to save her life. Martin’s 6-year-old sister, Jane, reportedly lost a leg.
“We thank our family and friends, those we know and those we have never met, for their thoughts and prayers,” Martin’s father, Bill Richard, says. “I ask that you continue to pray for my family as we remember Martin. We also ask for your patience and for privacy as we work to simultaneously grieve and recover.”
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