Ipe Mathai is the founder and president of Mathai Outreach Ministries, a Christian-based, non- profit organization founded in 1996 focused on outreach, church planting, and training pastors across various regions of India. Ipe attended the University of Houston – Clear Lake where he obtained a degree in healthcare administration in 1985. Ipe was a healthcare professional and business executive launching multiple healthcare enterprises in Houston and surrounding areas in Texas. In 1993, at the peak of his flourishing career, Ipe heard the voice of God telling him, “Go back to your people.” Ipe understood this as God’s call for him to go back to the people of
India for ministry. Ipe and his wife Susie have been members of Lakewood Church in Houston for over 30 years and have served there as volunteers. Seeing his commitment to the ministry for missions’ outreach in India, the late Pastor John Osteen ordained Ipe as Minister of Gospel in 1998. In
2008, Ipe received certification to be a Licensed Minister by the International Congress of Churches & Ministries based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Following his calling to missions, Ipe
pursued his Doctor of Divinity from the International Seminary in Florida and graduated in 2012.
Ipe is also the author of A Handful of Clay in the Potter’s Hand, an autobiography about his life,
career and early ministry experiences.
Ipe Mathai, in his youth was rebellious and ran away from his father’s home and lived on the
streets, struggling to continue a life without hope and belonging. Unaware of his purpose and
the love that God had for him, he began to realize the potential of God’s love and the assurance
of His provision through firsthand experiences with God. His encounter with God the Healer
began with a miraculous healing of his blinded eye and deliverance from many physical
ailments. This was the start of his personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and he was able to
witness many miracles and healings in the lives of others as well as his own through decades of
ministry even to this day. His professional career of caring for the sick and suffering developed
in him the reality of the many challenges that life entailed about human suffering. It brought a
deeper understanding of God’s unlimited power that could deliver people from both spiritual and
physical afflictions. As a strong and faithful Christian, he supported evangelical causes and
developing local churches across many regions of India as well as in other parts of the world. In
1993, Ipe received a personal calling from God to go back to his people. Already established in
his professional and business career, Ipe sought further guidance in this calling from God. In
response, he made several missionary trips to India and other countries in support of many
ministries in these areas. In 1996 at a Pastors and Leaders Conference hosted by the late
Pastor John Osteen of Lakewood Church, Ipe’s passion for mission and outreach work was
ignited as his calling was confirmed to reach out to those in need of hope. He was convinced
that the ultimate answer to one’s life could only be found in Jesus Christ. The following year in
1997, Mathai Outreach Ministries, Inc. was registered, as a non-profit charitable organization
with a passionate desire to share the abounding love and grace of Jesus Christ to the unsaved.
After traveling to many towns and villages, it was in his hometown of Pandalam, India that the
ministry was established. In the following years, God’s promise was fulfilled through the number
of believers touched with the message of Christ, the number of baptisms, and the establishment
of several churches in various parts of India. Today our ministry is actively involved in Kerala,
Punjab, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Ipe and his
wife Susie, continue to travel to many parts of India as well as various countries across the
world with an ever increasing passion to share the message of the gospel and the love of Jesus
Christ.