Mission ship has Andy moving

Andy Batten, 31, is a shining example of a man who can multi-task.

He is one of the crew members on the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Marine Reach MV Pacific Link ship, which is berthed at Port Taranaki until Monday.

The ship, which has a crew of 16 volunteers, provides basic health care, optometry and dentistry to the Pacific islands.

Andy, from Taranaki, worked in the engine-room as the ship's electrician and engineer.

And on the odd occasion he was required to help above decks as a dentist assistant.

He talks about one experience in which he had to don the scrubs as they were short-staffed.

"The place where we were anchored was a very precarious spot and the ship was moving around a lot.

"Halfway through assisting with a patient I get a tap on the shoulder from the chief engineer who said we needed to shift the ship."

So Andy takes off his scrubs and moves the ship to a better spot. Once that was done it was straight back up to the dentistry work.

"There were a number of people being treated who were sitting on the deck waiting for a boat back to shore who saw me in scrubs working in their mouth.

"Then they saw me in the engine room with my engine room clothes on and then saw me back. They were wondering what was going on."

The ship is here as part of a national tour. Andy has been involved with the ship for 18 months.

"I wanted to do something different," he says.

"I wanted to use my skills in some way that I could help other people who aren't as fortunate as we are in New Zealand."

Andy, who lived in Hawera and worked in Fonterra before joining the crew, is the only Taranaki member on the Pacific Link.

His desire to volunteer on such a ship dates back a few years when he took a tour around a similar ship that came to Port Taranaki.

"I remember visiting as a kid and thinking that doing something on a ship would be quite cool," he says.

He joined six others from New Zealand. Other crew members are from Germany, Fiji, Samoa, South Korea, Britain, Canada, United States and France.

Joining the Pacific Link became an experience Andy will never forget.

"I found once I got involved that I really, really loved doing what I was doing and looked at a number of options for which I could stay."

After nine months he decided that instead of leaving the ship he'd undertake a five-month Discipleship Training School on the ship.

It is a YWAM course that helps people prepare to be missionaries. Now Andy is the Marine Reach teams co-ordinator and has committed the next two years to the cause.

 The ship is open to the public today from 9am to 4pm and Sunday from 1pm to 5pm. Free tours leave from Moturoa School during those hours.