Every three months, 75-year-old Cecília Nenê opened an ordinary notebook and began to write. Slowly, carefully, page by page, she transcribed the entire 150-page Seventh-day Adventist quarterly Bible study guide, every paragraph, every reference, every verse, copied by hand from a borrowed copy she could not afford to own. When the next quarter came, she did it again.

Her story has now reshaped how her local church thinks about access to Scripture.

Cecília's commitment came to light when her congregation, based in the Excapira neighbourhood of Benguela, surveyed its members and discovered that only 80 of approximately 600 members owned a quarterly Bible study guide. The figures alarmed Pastor Eliseu Tchalita and his team, and prompted the launch of a new initiative: One Member, One Quarterly, aimed at ensuring every member of the congregation has access to a study guide.

"When we learned about Sister Cecília's story, we understood the true meaning of dedication," said Carlos Albino, Advisory Elder for the Sabbath School Department. "The project took on a whole new dimension after hearing her testimony."

The programme categorises members into three groups: those who can purchase multiple copies, those who can afford one, and those who cannot afford any. Members in the first group are encouraged to buy extra copies to donate to those in the third, a redistribution system that turns the church into its own supply network.

The impact is already visible in the numbers. A congregation that previously ordered fewer than 100 copies per quarter is now ordering 365. Organisers say the next goal is to reach 95 per cent of the membership, then to extend the model to other Adventist congregations across the Benguela region, a possibility already under discussion among local religious leaders.

On the Sabbath that the project was launched, Cecília received her own quarterly guide for the first time.

She lives with her daughter, Maria da Graça, in the Excapira neighbourhood. Her notebooks, the careful, three-monthly record of a woman who refused to let poverty separate her from the Word, have become the symbol of a project now growing beyond the walls of one church.

For Albino and his team, the lesson is one the whole church can hear.

"The project took on a whole new dimension after hearing her testimony," he said.