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 who partner with hundreds of churches in the Boston area.

The goal of the site is to enable Boston's church community to connect with and offer help to victims. The site enables people to people to post availability of housing, meal delivery and other needs. One professional counsellor has already offered to donate free trauma counselling.

Three people, including eight-year-old Martin Richard, died in the bombing. Another 176 were injured, some critically.

Andrew Sears, Executive Director of TechMission, explained 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 victimised by the Boston Marathon bombing.

Source: Christian Newswire