He grew up in Mountain View, traveled the world with the U.S. Army and ended up back in the neighborhood that raised him.

“I’ve had some troubled times,” said Andrew LaFrance, sitting out behind his Mountain View Drive church one afternoon. “But I’ll tell you, I think God’s just testing me.”

Most of his family is dead; the heart and cross tattooed on his arm memorialize his mother and grandmother. His voice rasps when he talks because of old fights with cancer and tuberculosis. But the way he sees it, everyone goes through trials and tribulations.

“We all got a purpose,” he said, puffing on the tail end of a short joint. “I think it’s to help people.”