From Unemployed Scholar to Soho Barista: How Coffee Conversations Created Kairos Cards

April 2024. PhD almost done. Zero job offers. Bank account draining.

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.

So I did what any Hong Kong-born theologian in London does: I became a barista.

Sacred Ground café, Soho. Grade I listed building. Specialty coffee. Customers who actually talk.

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?

I started sketching. What if theology looked like… trading cards?

I designed Kairos Cards — bilingual (English/Traditional Chinese) theology cards. Bible verses about salvation, grace, hope. Collectible. Beautiful. Pocket-sized.

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.

The Award That Changed Everything

November 2024. Email from Nashville.

Society for Christian Scholarship in Music: Graduate Student Paper Prize.

My paper on post-rock as contemporary lament beat submissions from Yale, Duke, Notre Dame.

The recognition said: This work matters. Keep going.

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.

But more importantly: I had evidence that my hunch was right.

Gen Z needs theology that meets them in their actual pain. The Conversations That Built Series Two Back to the espresso machine.

More conversations:

“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.

“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.

“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.”

“My family disowned me when I came out.”→ Joseph. Seventeen. Thrown in a pit by his own brothers. God still had plans.

The Series Nobody Asked For (But Everyone Needs)

Kairos Cards Series Two: “You Are Not Alone”

Four biblical nobodies:

• Mary → discrimination

• Widow → poverty

• Samaritan Woman → relationship trauma

• Joseph → betrayal

Not heroes. Small people (小人物) who felt invisible, broke, ashamed, betrayed.

Sound familiar? Why I Need Your Help

Here’s the truth:

I’m still that unemployed scholar.

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.

But I can’t fund this alone.

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.

What $2,000 creates not just cards. A theological intervention.

Not despite being unemployed. Because of it. The academy rejected me. The café accepted me. Gen Z taught me what they actually need.

Help Me Create What They’re Asking For

Series One proved the concept works.Series Two answers the question they keep asking:

“Does the Bible talk about people like me?”

That’s why I want to explore more via a tiny trading card.

First series launches and sells online:

https://soloist.ai/kairos-en

@lifeseeksunderstanding | @King_Zausage