Ignite Life Center Defendant Travels to NY 2nd Time This Year While on Pretrial Release; Head Pastor Celebrates Mariano Rivera’s Birthday
On November 14, Christian Varags’ lawyer Gilbert Schaffnit filed a motion to allow Vargas to travel to New York City while on pretrial release for his two lewd and lascivious behavior cases.
Three people from Ignite Life Center (ILC) have been arrested for committing sex crimes against underaged children: (1) convicted child molester Gabriel Hemenez; (2) ILC head pastor Mark Vega’s son, alleged rapist Vargas; and (3) former associate pastor Jose Cruz’s son, alleged statutory rapist Noel Cruz.
Judge William Davis granted the motion, allowing Vargas “to travel with his parents to New York, New York, from November 29, 2024 until December 2, 2024. All terms and conditions, including no unsupervised contact with minors while in New York or while traveling to and from New York, all of Vargas’ pre-trial release conditions are to be adhered to while out of the State of Florida.”
On November 28 around 9:00 p.m., Vega posted a picture on his Instagram story where he is standing with his wife Lisa Vega, Lisa Vega’s parents, Lisa Vega’s sister, and her husband JJ Vasquez who is the head pastor of Journey Church in Orlando, along with Vargas and his biological half brother’s dad, and multiple children.
The date and location of this picture haven’t been verified, but it may indicate that Mark Vega and his family flew out of Orlando, as it was posted shortly before they were scheduled to fly out, and JJ Vasquez runs his church in Orlando.
Vega posted a picture on his story on the afternoon of November 29 showing he arrived in New York City. Later that night, MLB Hall-of-Famer Mariano Rivera made a post on Instagram showing his birthday dinner where Mark and Lisa Vega can be seen.
Mark Vega and Rivera have been friends since 1992. Vega additionally served as the chaplain for the NY Yankees while Rivera played.
Rivera’s name got brought up in one of the now-settled lawsuits against ILC for not reporting sexual abuse by now-convicted child molester Hemenez.
Vega used his influence at Rivera’s Refuge of Hope Church in New Rochelle, NY, to persuade parents to send their children to Ignite’s Summer Internship, where Hemenez sexually abused multiple children while working as a volunteer and enrolling as an Ignite School of Ministry (ISM) student.
When the Daily Beast reported that Mariano Rivera is far-right for supporting Donald Trump and Israel back in 2019, Rivera had no problem with responding. However, Rivera hasn’t responded to an ILC survivor’s sister publicly stating he is just as guilty as the pastors at ILC who covered up child sexual abuse.
Mariano Rivera celebrated his birthday with two of his sons, Jaziel and Jafet Rivera.
Jafet Rivera previously attended ISM and he currently appears on a promotional image on ISM’s website. A former ISM student who spoke out against ILC said that when Jafet Rivera went to ISM “he’d get treated like royalty. It didn’t matter what girl he had sex with on campus. It didn’t matter because that’s Mariano's son. He was cool.”
Christian Vargas is noticeably absent from the dinner table in the post from Rivera’s birthday.
GnvInfo commented on Mariano Rivera’s birthday post asking if he cared about the fact a child who traveled from his church to ILC was sexually abused there, considering he’s celebrating with Mark Vega. GnvInfo also tagged Mark Vega and asked where his alleged rapist son was located when the picture was being taken, as court orders say Vargas is permitted to travel to New York “with his parents.” Neither of them have responded and Mark Vega blocked GnvInfo on Instagram.
This wouldn't be the first time Vargas traveled to New York while on pretrial release, and it also wouldn’t be the first time there was a discrepancy in his compliance with court orders.
Vargas was permitted to travel to White Plains, NY, from April 1 - April 10 “with his parents.” On April 7, Vega appeared on stage at ILC’s sermon and said “I’m not supposed to be here. My wife is not supposed to be here. We are technically on vacation.”
Vega posted more pictures from his NY trip on his story today and Vargas is not in any of them. Presently, it is not clear how Vargas’ compliance with court orders is being ensured.
Vargas’ previously canceled depositions from four Gainesville Police Department detectives have been rescheduled for January 23.
