Give me that Bible!

For all the teachers out there, here's another story from my sister Chrissie in Indonesia:

""Just wanted to share something really neat with you. First, some background: my classroom is made up of mainly Christians and Catholics but also several Buddhists and one Muslim. However, the school is a Christian school so we teach the kids about the Bible. My favourite time of the day is in the morning when I have devotions with the kids. I read them a story from the Bible (NIV version - not really any pictures) and then ask them a question from another book full of questions kids have (eg. What will heaven be like? Who can go to heaven? etc). Then we sing with my guitar. Their favourite time is when I read from the Bible. I started in Genesis and am reading through all of the major stories including the creation, the fall, the call of Abraham, etc. Every day I leave the story hanging. Right now they're waiting to see what's going to happen between Joseph and his brothers when Joseph's family goes to Egypt.

Anyway, time for me to tell you the exciting news. :) The kids can't wait to hear what's going to happen the next day in the Bible. So, during free reading time, or if they finish an assignment early, I let them read whatever they want. Soon, I noticed that everyone wanted to read the Bible so that they could read what happened next. Then, they started reading random stories in the Bible, just because they were interested. However, I then noticed that kids were fighting over the one Bible in the room and getting upset when they couldn't read it. So I brought in about five more picture-type Bibles for them. However, when I brought these in, the kids started rushing through their assignments and then would race to the corner where I keep the Bibles so that they could get them before their friends. I actually had to stop a couple of fights because kids were fighting over the last remaining Bible. So, I told the kids that they weren't allowed to read it for three days...they were so upset!!! I would still read it to them during devotions but I told them they can't read it again until after our break (in about 10 days). One of my friends suggested that I bring in enough Bibles for all of them to read so that they won't have this problem of fighting over them. But I'm worried that if I do that, the novelty of reading the Bible will wear off. And I think I want to teach them how to share and let each other have turns anyway. What do you think? "