Ignite Life Center Pastor Lisa Vega Opening Lisa V Company in Alachua
Ignite Life Center (ILC) senior pastor Lisa Vega, a woman accused of helping facilitate a cover-up of child sexual abuse and showing up to a victim's place of work, is opening a business in Alachua.
Lisa Vega holds the senior pastor position with her husband, ILC’s leader Mark Vega.
“Lisa V Company is bringing Luxe Within Reach to Alachua with its flagship store on November 1st and 2nd, 2024. Located in the heart of Alachua, this exciting two-day event will feature exclusive promotions and a first look at Lisa V Company’s stunning collection,” reports Lisa V Company in a press release hosted by the Alachua Chronicle.
Since July 2023, three people from the Church have been arrested for committing sex crimes against children: Gabriel Hemenez, who was convicted of child molestation, along with Christian Vargas and Noel Cruz, who face charges for lewd/lascivious sex crimes against minor girls.
After a girl identified as V reported Cruz’s and Vargas’ sexual abuse to her father, under Mark Vega’s guidance, they arranged a private meeting between themselves, V, Lisa Vega, Jose and Noel Cruz, Vargas, pastor Esther Ombeon, and pastor Nick Bruce. They all met at Mark Vega’s house in High Springs.
V’s sister, Leslie Velazquez, said V had no say in this meeting. “I doubt she talked at all. From what I’ve heard, it was just my dad, Mark, and [Jose Cruz] talking, and Noel and Christian apologizing.”
Lisa Vega sat by and watched as the cover-up occurred, as detailed in a Gainesville Police Department (GPD) Supplemental Report.
Between Velazquez’s interview and her father and sister’s account in the Supplemental Report, nearly an entire family has publicly testified to Mark Vega’s evidence concealment.
Supervisor of the Supplemental Report, GPD Sergeant John Pandak, said there’s “no probable cause to charge Mark Vega with anything.”
According to Lisa V Company’s press release, Lisa Vega believes design is about the “profound impact thoughtful curation can have on living and enjoying life.”
When Velazquez and V used to work at Chick-fil-A, Lisa Vega showed up at their place of work. Velazquez said she saw Lisa Vega while taking orders in July. “I was getting ready to get the car info, and she rolls her window down, and I see her crusty face. She was like, ‘HI!’ and smiling…. She was like, ‘HI! How are you!’ I said ‘give me one second’ and told my coworker I’m freaking out, and she made me uncomfortable and asked them to switch orders. Whenever I see them, I get anxious moments; my hand was shaking. It's like, Why do I let them get to me, but the anxiety they give you is insane.”
Lisa Vega has made celebrity contacts through her business endeavors.
Lisa Vega also runs a flower business called Fiorebella and received a promotion from celebrity designer Preston Bailey. Lisa Vega tags Bailey in many of Fiorebella’s Instagram posts, but he doesn't appear to be responsive and they don’t appear to have any active partnership.
In early August, Lisa Vega joined the GNV Business Professionals Facebook group and attended a Business and Real Estate Professionals Networking Event.
CEO of entrepreneur networking business Alchemist Nation, Gualter Amarelo, posted a picture on Facebook at the event with Lisa Vega and several other business owners.
Amarelo stated on Facebook that Lisa Vega, along with the other business owners in the photo, talked to the MY Foundation student non-profit CEO, Michelle Young.
Lisa Vega made a Facebook post thanking Amarelo, Young, and guest speaker Gary Eaker.
Lisa Vega said she “won Gualter's book” and signed up for the subsequent GNV Business Professionals event held on September 3.
ILC pastor/public relations manager Nicole Gomez may be associating herself with the GNV Business Professionals group with Lisa Vega. Young posted a Facebook photo from the event showing Gomez standing at a table and conversing with an attendee.
Lisa Vega is running her business in Alachua, but the principal and mailing addresses are located at ILC. Lisa V Company's registered agent is somebody named Eliseo Santana.
All of the ILC whistleblowers have held that Lisa Vega is a perpetrator in need of accountability, with some also seeing her as a victim simultaneously.
The seventh anonymous ILC whistleblower said in a statement that “Mark would always curse, insult, and belittle everyone around him, especially Lisa. While I sometimes feel bad for her, she isn't any less guilty of all that has transpired. As she was well aware of his tactics and blindly supported him in all decisions. I have seen with my own eyes how Mark would degrade and belittle her, talking to her as if she were his child, not his wife. He insults his in-laws behind their backs, bashing Christian's [biological] mother because she couldn't care for him.”
The sixth anonymous ILC whistleblower said Lisa Vega and many ILC associates are “victims but also perpetrators, as crazy as that may sound…. The reason why some of them are victims and perpetrators is, well, I hate to say it, but they don’t read the Bible. As simple as that may sound, a lot of them don’t study true biblical doctrine enough to see heresy or tell the difference between false teachings and biblical teachings. They are victims in the sense of not thinking for themselves, yet at the same time, Mark Vega being as smart as he is, he’s gonna know which people to pick on because he knows who are the yes-men who don’t really read the Bible. In a sense, they are victims, but at the same time, they are perpetrators because they’d do whatever they are told to do.”
ILC is still working with kids. According to their website, they run a middle and high school youth group called “Consumed Youth” on Wednesday nights.
ILC's website shows they run a children’s ministry called "IKids,” which hosts babies to kids in their preteens.
ILC hosts a ministry called "Royal Rangers" for young boys between the ages of five and 12, according to the church’s website.
ILC also has an upcoming Spanish service this Sunday and will hold another on December 1, according to the church’s website.
After Hemenez was arrested in early July 2023, GnvInfo showed up to ILC for their first scheduled sermon after his arrest to see if they’d publicly respond. It ended up not being a standard sermon, as ILC had a town hall-style meeting about Hemenez’s sexual abuses.
Velazquez and V were also at the meeting, Velazquez told GnvInfo.
Mark Vega issued a statement on ILC’s behalf stating that ILC is “fully committed to continually support and foster a healthy reporting culture and to cooperate with law enforcement in maintaining justice.”
Velazquez said V walked out of the meeting because Vega was lying.
Recently settled civil lawsuits alleged that a sexual abuse survivor called up GPD to ask them how the investigation was going and was told that there wasn’t an investigation because ILC never reported it.
