This week, with the Rev Kevin Logan, of Christ Church Accrington.

IT took hours to tear old white sheets into strip bandages. The church ladies group then rolled them into neat coils and packed them off to the mission field.

Many thanks, the missionaries later replied. Due to a severe shortage of bed linen, we sewed them together and made sheets.

Living by guesswork is such a waste. It is good to talk, BT tells us. Not only do BT shares work better, so do we.

Nearly every married couple I have ever counselled reached their mess because they stopped talking.

Almost every sad story in our newspapers could have stopped well short of becoming news with a few words of true communication between warring parties. And it is not only humans talking to humans. Take me and my church, for example.

Hang on a mo, nudges God in the quiet. Whose church? Good point, Father. Let me start again.

Take me and God's church, which is exactly the point. Communication between Creator and created is vital.

This, of course, has been basic ever since Adam chatted with his Maker in a garden in Eden (Genesis 2).

This is what we were made for: a living, talking, walking relationship with the Number One Person of the Universe. An incredible privilege and joy.

Imagine me running his church without ever consulting Him (sadly, as a mere human, I sometimes don't have to imagine).

Imagine you running your life without Him. He gives you arms, legs, a mouth and a brain to use for him and with him.

But how many of us are wasting out lives tearing strip bandages when what the Boss really needs are sheets?