Facilitating the growth of each unique group of learners is a special privilege, and we teachers closely observe the passions and interests of our young scholars in order to help them along the way.  This year it has been my delight to watch the class develop a very deep interest in reading the Bible on their own using their “grown-up” ESV Bibles.  They constantly share what they are discovering, ask questions about their reading, encourage each other enthusiastically, and apply what they are learning.  Some of them have been highlighting every single verse of every page they read with their bright-colored highlighters, which always makes me smile.  I hope you will be as touched as I am by these two interviews with readers who finished the Forty Book Challenge recently.

An Interview with Martha

Part of my Forty Book Challenge this year has been challenging myself to read the Bible. At the start of the year, some friends and I said, “Hey, would you like to read the Bible together?” And we decided YES!
Our first book was Proverbs. So far I have read Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I’m reading Psalms now. It feels very exciting because I’m on fire with God.
I want to read God’s Word when I’m little because it will help me to go on and on being on fire for God. I heard on “Go Fish” that you should go to the Bible and ask yourself, “Is that okay?” If I want to know the answer to that question, I need to know the Bible.
This school year, I think I will be able to read about half of the whole Bible. I bring home my Bible that the school gave me for my own. That way I can read at home and at school. I got some Bible journals that I am writing in about what I read, and we are all asking each other lots of questions too. We are trying to make connections between all the things we are reading in the Bible. I love my Bible.

An Interview with Jaelyn

I am reading Psalms now. I love learning more about God. It means something, not just a regular old book. It has been helping me because if I have a situation when I don’t really know what to do, I can ask myself, “What did I read in the Bible that would help me decide about that?” It can help me go in the right direction, not the wrong one. I want to stay away from the slippery slope.
We journal each day in our Bible journals. We write verses that we think are important and what our thoughts are about those verses. We also write prayer requests that we share with each other.
The Forty Book Challenge made me feel really motivated to do more than I even thought I could! Martha and I wrote a play together to put the meaning of Christ we had read about in the Gospels, and we are going to perform it for our Bible class this week. I’m going to keep reading and reading until I get to the whole Bible next year.