<div>From Unemployed Scholar to Soho Barista: How Coffee Conversations Created Kairos Cards
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<div>April 2024. PhD almost done. Zero job offers. Bank account draining.
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<div>I’d spent four years researching how Gen Z encounters God in unexpected places — studying post-rock bands, analyzing Sigur Rós lyrics (spoiler: there aren’t many), arguing that instrumental music creates sacred space.
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<div>So I did what any Hong Kong-born theologian in London does: I became a barista.
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<div>Sacred Ground café, Soho. Grade I listed building. Specialty coffee. Customers who actually talk.
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<ul>
<li>A 22-year-old orders a flat white. Mentions her therapist. Asks if I know any “non-cringe” Christian resources about anxiety.
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<li>Theology student. Church job. Fresh breakup. “Does the Bible ever talk about people like me?”
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<li>Marketing exec. Just fired. “I keep praying but feel nothing. Am I broken?”
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</ul>
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<div>Gen Z is spiritually starving but can’t digest church language. Where’s the theological response? Where are the biblical figures who felt like this?
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<div>I started sketching. What if theology looked like… trading cards?
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<div>I designed Kairos Cards — bilingual (English/Traditional Chinese) theology cards. Bible verses about salvation, grace, hope. Collectible. Beautiful. Pocket-sized.
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<div>Sacred Ground agreed to stock them in my first series, and it sold well by endorsed a local creative agency and a YouTuber who has million followers.
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<div>The Award That Changed Everything
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<div>November 2024. Email from Nashville.
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<div>Society for Christian Scholarship in Music: Graduate Student Paper Prize.
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<div>My paper on post-rock as contemporary lament beat submissions from Yale, Duke, Notre Dame.
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<div>The recognition said: This work matters. Keep going.
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<div><br />
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<div>Two weeks later: appointed to Society for the Study of Theology committee (UK) — the only early-career scholar, the only non-white member, the only person who works retail. Suddenly I had credibility. And a platform.
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<div><br />
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<div>But more importantly: I had evidence that my hunch was right.
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<div><br />
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<div>Gen Z needs theology that meets them in their actual pain. The Conversations That Built Series Two Back to the espresso machine.
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<div><br />
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<div>More conversations:
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<div>“Nobody at church gets what it’s like to be a woman of color.”→ I thought about Mary. Teenage girl. No legal voice. God chose her anyway.
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<div>“I’m sending out 50 job applications a week. I feel invisible.”→ The Widow of Zarephath. One meal left. God sent Elijah to her, not the wealthy.
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<div>“I’ve had three relationships this year. My small group thinks I’m backslidden.”→ The Woman at the Well. Five marriages. Jesus didn’t wait for her to “fix herself.”
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<div>“My family disowned me when I came out.”→ Joseph. Seventeen. Thrown in a pit by his own brothers. God still had plans.
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<div><br />
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<div>The Series Nobody Asked For (But Everyone Needs)
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<div>Kairos Cards Series Two: “You Are Not Alone”
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<div>Four biblical nobodies:
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<div>•	Mary → discrimination
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<div>•	Widow → poverty
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<div>•	Samaritan Woman → relationship trauma
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<div>•	Joseph → betrayal
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<div>Not heroes. Small people (小人物) who felt invisible, broke, ashamed, betrayed.
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<div>Sound familiar? Why I Need Your Help
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<div><br />
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<div>Here’s the truth:
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<div>I’m still that unemployed scholar.
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<div>I have chose barista work over academic positions because my research is about “unchurched pilgrims” — and you can’t study people outside church if you never leave the seminary.
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<div>But I can’t fund this alone.
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<div>I’ve raised 100,000 HKD for music festivals before. I’ve secured £100,000 in church funding. I know how to make things happen.
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<div>What $2,000 creates not just cards. A theological intervention.
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<div><br />
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<div>Not despite being unemployed. Because of it. The academy rejected me. The café accepted me. Gen Z taught me what they actually need.
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<div>Help Me Create What They’re Asking For
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<div>Series One proved the concept works.Series Two answers the question they keep asking:
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<div>“Does the Bible talk about people like me?”
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<div><br />
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<div>That’s why I want to explore more via a tiny trading card.
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<div>First series launches and sells online:
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<div><a href="https://soloist.ai/kairos-en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><a href="https://soloist.ai/kairos-en" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://soloist.ai/kairos-en</a></a>
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<div>@lifeseeksunderstanding | @King_Zausage
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GRAHAM DERRIMAN

Ka Chung Janet Ng

Anonymous

Kan Yu

ty aby Chow

Deborah Frank

Bridget Rendle

You Are Not Alone — The Small People Series in Bible.

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Just £680£ to go! Make an impact.

You Are Not Alone — The Small People Series in Bible.

Just £680 to go!
Make an impact.