amasomoyamisa.com: from PDF chaos to an automated platform

The problem

Rwandan Catholics who wanted the daily Mass readings in Kinyarwanda were stuck piecing them together from scattered PDFs, screenshots, and inconsistent Facebook posts. There was no single, reliable, mobile-friendly source — and no automated way to keep one updated every day without manual effort.

What was built

A Next.js web platform that publishes the day's readings on a fast, simple page; a native Android app for the audience that wanted an install-once experience; and an n8n automation that distributes each day's content to Facebook without anyone touching a keyboard. The result is one content pipeline feeding three surfaces the audience already uses.

Architecture

A hard technical problem

A production deploy on AWS Amplify started failing without a clear error, on a build that had worked fine the day before. Working through the Amplify build logs pointed to a step that reads a secret from AWS SSM Parameter Store at build time — the parameter path had drifted after an environment change, so Amplify was requesting a secret that no longer resolved. Fixing it meant re-aligning the SSM parameter path with what the build expected, confirming the Amplify service role had the right IAM permissions to read it, and redeploying. Afterward, a deploy-time check was added so a missing or misconfigured secret fails loudly and immediately instead of producing a confusing downstream error.

Outcome

A stable, automated platform with a large, loyal daily audience, running on infrastructure simple enough for one person to maintain — with the daily content pipeline, web platform, Android app, and social distribution all running hands-off.