Former Ignite Life Center Summer Student Reports Another Coverup from Over Decade Ago

Another former attendee of Ignite Life Center (ILC) is speaking out against the congregation. This comes amid multiple pending civil and criminal cases relating to the church, one being against the head pastor, Mark Vega, who faces maximum sentence of five years in prison for a felony count of failing to report suspected child abuse.

Charlotte “Charli” Colón only attended ILC for one summer in 2014 when she was 16 or 17, but her statements corroborate Vega’s pending criminal matter. 

Vega’s police report regards multiple reporting failures, one being that he failed to reprimand Gabriel Hemenez in 2019 after he sexually assaulted another man. Hemenez would later be convicted for sexually abusing children during the 2021 ILC Summer Internship, offenses Vega also reportedly concealed. 

Growing up in California, Colón said her cousin went to ILC when she was younger, leading her mom to push her to go. Colón said, “She didn't believe I was a good daughter… She felt that I needed to be more disciplined and get closer to God, but around that time, I was reading my Bible, because before, I went to another Christian program, that's honestly connected to mutual people that know Pastor Vega.”

Colón said the program was called Recaptured, which she affirmed was run by JJ Vasquez. Vasquez is the head pastor of Journey Church in Orlando. Vasquez’s wife and Vega’s wife are sisters.

Colón said she attended the Recaptured program before going to ILC, but that when she began attending ILC, she initially did not realize the connection between the Recaptured program’s leader and the Church. 

Colón didn’t have any complaints about Recaptured and said that she wished she was there when she was at ILC. 

Colón said the summer program she went to was supposed to be like a Christian bootcamp, but that Jesus would “flip the tables” over what went on. She described the program as “man-led,” not “God-led.”

Colón said that each parent had to pay $2,000 per child. She described how church leaders took students’ phones and she was not allowed to talk to her parents.

Colón recalled how when she attended the program, a younger 14-year-old female student confided to her and another older girl (witness) that a youth leader in his 20s “said that they had a dream about her saying that God told him to tell her that she was going to be his wife.” 

Over a decade has passed since this reported incident, and Colón did not recall the identity of the perpetrator. She described how at the time it was a “normal” and "repetitive" thing where guys would say “they’re having dreams about God speaking to them and then going to girls and [saying] ‘You’re supposed to be my wife’ and ‘You have to wait for me…’” 

Colón said the girls would sometimes fall for this, including the 14-year-old victim. Colón said she began asking the victim about their feelings and the victim admitted that she and the youth leader “made out.” 

Colón said she asked the victim, “What do you mean you made out?” The victim reportedly advised that she and the youth leader would “go in this closet in the church and they would be messing around.”

“I automatically knew what the heck was happening,” said Colón. “She was being manipulated… I was like, ‘Alright, screw that, we got to go to Mark Vega about this immediately.’” 

Colón said she told the victim the youth leader’s actions were wrong and that she started to come around to realizing he was using her. Colón said she, the victim and the witness intended to tell Vega together, believing he would take appropriate action.

Colón said that some days they got an opportunity to speak with Vega in his office where they told him about the youth leader’s sexual misconduct. 

“He didn’t seem like he had empathy,” described Colón. “It was more like—somebody he already hurt. It seemed to me like he already knew.” 

Colón said she remembers the victim crying and telling her experience. Colón said that Vega responded by bringing up “scripture about temptation,” asking the victim if she “tempted” the perpetrator, and saying something about “forgiveness.” 

Colón said that Vega brought the youth leader in and it “became an intervention.” 

“I remember being so upset,” said Colón. “There was no way you could contact your parents.” 

Colón said that while she was attending ILC, she got some opportunities to step away from regular church activities to do schoolwork with Adolfo Gomez, who later became an associate ILC pastor.

Colón said she trusted Gomez and decided to speak with him about the incident involving the victim and the youth leader. Colón said Gomez told her they were "handling” the situation and that it was “being taken care of.” 

Colón said that after the victim came forward, she was “kind of treated like shit” and that the youth leaders would “look down on her, like it was her fault.” Colón said the guys would “talk like she’s some lustful girl when she was only 14.” She said the youth leader’s “version of the story made it sound like he was being tempted by the devil.” 

Colón said that "accountability" would equate to “Satan used them as a vessel.” 

Colón recalled when Adolfo Gomez’s brother, Vicente Gomez, committed suicide. She said that the last post he made on Instagram was calling out the Church leaders. Colón added that the post had a “domino effect of a lot of truths coming out.” Colón said the Church made it out to be like it was Vicente Gomez’s “fault” he committed suicide. 

Colón said that Adolfo Gomez is “brainwashed” if he’s still in the Church. She said she tried reaching out to him but he did not respond and left her on read.

Colón said the program she attended was in two parts and that she left briefly after the first part to attend a family reunion. She said that she had an opportunity to stop going but decided to return, feeling a responsibility for others. 

Colón said that as a part of the program, students would wear a string necklace of beads and leaders would give and take beads to measure good and bad behavior. She said that if a student lost all their beads, they would be kicked out of the program. 

Colón said there was a 15-year-old boy who attended the program and would sometimes act like a 15-year-old boy. “He would be rebellious, and sometimes he would talk back…” 

Colón said that when he lost his beads, the leaders would make it sound like “he was coming from hell to tempt a soul.” Colón recalled Vega saying the kid would be sent to hell if he continued on his path. Colón said he hadn’t done anything to warrant hell and that she and other students decided to stand up for him to Vega. 

Colón said Vega called a meeting and she threw her beads on the floor in front of him. Colón said Vega didn’t get mad but called his congregation to “vote” on if the 15-year-old boy should be allowed to stay. Colón said the majority of people sat down, but she and a few of the guys, including Vicente Gomez, kept standing.

Colón said Vega convinced the guys to sit but she kept standing. Vega then said the 15-year-old student would be allowed to stay because Colón stood up for him.

Colón said, “Then they gave me a moment to speak to [him], for some reason, in front of everyone, to basically change his life, and I didn't really fully agree with that.”

Colón recalled a time when Vega talked to her in his office for hours and that he told her he wanted her to be a pastor at ILC. Colón said Vega told her that her parents “were not helping” her get “closer to God.” 

Colón, who is a graffiti artist, said, “What helped me see right through his bullshit is when he said that he used to tag, he said he used to be a graffiti writer in New York... 
He said his name was ‘Naz…’ Maybe when he was a kid… I was doing graph on my book and I feel like he was just wanting to resonate.”

Colón said that after Vega showed her favor, youth leaders would give her weird looks, as if they were seeking his approval. Colón said it carried the feeling of “talking to a royal person” and “you’re popular after that… It was a cult.” 

Colón recalled how congregants lined up in front of Vega and he would pray over them. Colón said that Vega, speaking in front of others, said that she had “five demons following” her around… “like a legion…” “He would say, ‘This [person] has seven,’ ‘This [person] has five,’ ‘This [person] has two…’ He would judge like that.”

“It’s more about following Ignite than following a Christ-like mind…” Colón said. “If Jesus Christ pulled up on them, I don't even think they would even be able to recognize him.”

Colón recalled Vega preaching about the end-times or demonic entities, saying, “I felt like I was hallucinating… There’s this guy that his tongue came out past his chin and I’m like, ‘Alright… is that what he was talking about?’ Like, entity? 
Because I was like, ‘okay, that looked creepy as fuck…’ There is such a thing… a demon coming into a vessel, and I know—I've witnessed that type of energy even in the music industry… That does exist, but the way I think Mark Vega goes about it, I think he doesn't realize he's also a vessel in that way… The way how they neglect the girls..."

Colón said that ILC would neglect men as well, saying, "it was pretty obvious that there were some men there—they were gay—they weren't open about it, cause they were afraid to open up about it… We all knew, and then when they were open about it, they’d really put themselves down, like, ‘I'm a sinner…’ It’s almost like self-sabotage when the Gospel clearly says rejoice. It’s supposed to be good news… We have to take the hell out of our lives, not blame everybody else for it. We're responsible for our bodies…”

Colón said that after she left she knew what she experienced at ILC was wrong and that she “went straight to Pastor JJ about it.” She said Vazquez told her it wasn’t the first time he got a report like that about Vega and that he’d looked into it and found it disturbing. 

Colón said that her parents “got in an argument with Mark Vega over something, but they would not acknowledge that they had a responsibility.”

Some years later, Colón traveled to Florida again because her grandfather passed away. Around the same time, the Recaptured program was holding a reunion dinner at a restaurant and she decided to go. 

Colón described arriving at the reunion and finding Mark and Lisa Vega, and “everyone from that year’s program so happened to go there for a field trip to go eat at this restaurant.”  

Colón said that another congregant thought that she got “kicked out,” which isn’t true. 

In 2017 or 2018, Colón had another run-in with Vazquez and members of his Church at a Hillsong concert in New York. She said, “The song ‘Oceans’ came up and we were all hugging each other, and it was a pretty emotional moment, cause it was like, there's such a thing as forgiveness in life, and I just wondered, ‘am I a forgotten soul because I left the church?”

Colón said Vazquez told her about a pastor’s meetup in New York he was attending and that she believed Vega also attended because he had “an Ignite Church in New York.”

“There's a lot of pastors that are the head of a big chain church. They all have to meet up together," said Colón.

Vasquez appears to have retained a relationship with Vega following this. In the ILC sex abuse cases involving Christian Vargas, who is Vega’s son, he was granted permission to travel to New York twice in 2024 while on pretrial release. On the second occasion in November 2024, Vega, Vasquez, their wives, Vargas, and other members of the family all visited each other prior to the scheduled trip.