Paul Kim shared the news about the death of his son Micah in an emotional post on social media.
Micah, the 5-year-old son of Catholic speaker and influencer Paul Kim, died on Wednesday, December 31, after suffering complications from influenza.
Kim announced his son's passing in an emotional video shared on his Instagram account.
"Yesterday, on December 31, 2025, after fighting 11 long, hard, days, Micah went home to the house of our father," said Kim.
He continued, "We are so proud of him. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart as his dad, on behalf of my family, for all the ways you guys prayed and lifted us up during this time. This is an incredibly difficult, impossible time for our family. It's been the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life and it continues to be."
On December 21, Kim posted an urgent prayer request on Instagram, saying that his son Micah was being transported to the hospital by ambulance. He then provided updates throughout Micah's time in the hospital, continually asking for prayers.
Kim later explained that his son had suffered from a severe case of the flu, which had become septic and led to additional complications. He suffered "catastrophic" brain damage.
Micah will "truly save souls"
"Micah is already in Heaven at work, seriously, so many testimonies, so many ways in which God is using the light in my five-year-old to truly save souls and change the world," Kim said.
He expressed gratitude for how many people had followed his family's story throughout Micah's hospitalization, noting that his account has been viewed "over 50 million times," and that people from all around the world, on every continent, have been praying for his family.
"I've never seen anything like this in my life, truly," he said. "Only a small group of people personally know my son, so why all the fuss?"
A NICU baptism
Kim shared that Micah's story already made an important spiritual impact for another patient at his hospital. He recounted how a woman, whose two-week-old baby girl was in the NICU, had decided to baptize her baby after speaking with him.
"We got to talking about, 'Have you given baptism to your baby girl?' She said no and I encouraged her to think about it, especially given this emergency situation," said Kim. "[Wednesday], towards the end of Micah's life when his bed was being pushed, right at that moment the mom walked up and she said 'Hey, my husband and I have been talking about it, but we would like for you to baptize our child.'"
With a chuckle, Kim noted that as he is not a member of the clergy, he typically would not have the authority to baptize someone — except in an emergency situation.
"I asked my spiritual director, he OK'd it, I brought some holy water over, and for the first time in my life — I've always wanted to do this — I baptized a baby," he said.
"How does this happen in the midst of all this we're going through? There's a real possibility that before Micah passed he may have already been gone. I mean, coma, and the situation, it's very mysterious. His body was there but we know that his soul was already with the Lord. We were in a time of waiting."
"But, God's already using him, guys, in miraculous ways."
