Clear The Air

Relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors are rewarding and fulfilling.

Sometimes, there are conflicts, disagreements, and contention which is normal. A problem develops when no one wants to admit to being wrong, or apologize for behavior that brought heartache to the one they claim to love. When nothing is done to remove the tension and repair the bond, the hurt and misunderstanding continue to fester until it becomes a broken relationship. God desires us to have peace with one another and himself. In fact, he commands us to mend our relationships, because how we treat others affects our relationship with God. Jesus states in Matthew 5:23-24 (CSB) says, “So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”

Remove Any Hinderance

Just as God wants us to be at peace with people, he also wants us to be at peace with him. He will never stop loving us, because his love is unconditional and eternal. Also, Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins. His sacrifice took care of everything we would do past, present and future. However, if we want to continue to grow in our relationship with God and experience that freedom in him, we need to confess our sins, and receive God’s forgiveness. I John 1:8-9 (NLT) says, “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” God is not pleased if we ignore the sin in our lives, but he delights in those who are honest with him and are striving to have a pure heart before him. Proverbs 28:13 (NLT) says, “People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.

PRAY THIS PRAYER: “Father I praise you for being a gracious and merciful God. Thank you for loving me despite my faults. I know that I could never do anything to make you love me more or make you love me less. However, I want a close relationship with you. I don’t want anything hindering me from intimacy with you. You are my God and I am yours. Everything that I am and have I surrender to you now. Forgive me for pride and selfishness. I have disobeyed your word. I receive your forgiveness. I will turn and pay attention to your corrections. Please pour out your spirit on me; Lord, make your words known to me. I love you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.” ing down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, ‘Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’” Matthew 17: 1-9 I, like a lot of people, love the mountains. I have always, from a small child until now, loved the mountains. I like to ride in the mountains. I like to hike and camp in the mountains. I just like to sit on a mountain top and look at the surrounding countryside. I have experienced many spiritual events in my life in the mountains. This Gospel message from Matthew is one of my many favorite stories in the Bible and as you can guess, it is because of the mountains.

Danyale Patterson would love to hear from you! Contact her at www.danyale.com to share a testimony, send a prayer request, or book her to speak.

Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain. Can you imagine how magnificent that trip would have been, just from the very fact that Jesus invited them to go with Him up the mountain. However, there was more; on this mountain Jesus was transfigured before them. “Transfigured” is one of those church words that we don’t use in everyday language. When our children were young, they had toys called Transformers. These action figures changed from cars and trucks to various monsters or animals. I used their Transformers to explain being “transfigured” in several childrens’ sermons. Jesus changed before their very eyes; His clothes became dazzling white and appearing with Him was Moses and Elijah, the great Old Testament prophets. I have had a lot of spiritual experiences on mountains, but never any like this. Could you only imagine? Peter was dumbfounded, James and John speechless; seeing before them these great prophets with Jesus. Peter wanted to stay and even build huts, but a voice from heaven shushed him. The voice said, “This is My Son, the Beloved; with Him I am well pleased; listen to Him.” Then Jesus was alone. A true ‘mountaintop’ experience; some-

Cherryville Area

Places of Worship

thing never to forget. Jesus, God’s Son, offers us everlasting life. Jesus would go to the Cross and die for you and for me, but more importantly be raised from the dead. Even though we are not worthy to receive this gracious gift it is offered to us. This is a mountain top experience and we, like Peter, James and John, are witnesses and are called to not stay on the mountain, but to come down and tell the world the wonderful news of our Savior, Jesus. Jesus invites each of us into this journey with Him, a journey that will take us to the mountain top.

Anthony Grove Baptist Church 100 Anthony Grove Road Crouse, NC 704-435-6001

Bess Chapel United Methodist Church 6073 Flay Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-7969

Bethlehem United Methodist Church 6753 NC 182 Highway Cherryville, NC 704-435-1608

Blessed Hope Baptist Church 3357 Fallston-Waco Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-8530

Body of Christ Fellowship Center 405 S. Cherokee Street Cherryville, NC www.bodyofchrist7.com

Calvary Way Holiness Church 1017 Second Street Cherryville, NC Pastor Clifton Morgan Cherryville Church of God 810 East Main Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-2275

Cherryville Missionary Methodist Church 318 W. Ballard Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-6934

Emmanuel Baptist Church 1155 Marys Grove Church Rd Cherryville, NC 704-435-5764

Fairview Baptist Church 415 South Mountain Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-4299

First Baptist Church 301 East 1st Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-3796

First Church of the Nazarene 301 North Elm Street Cherryville, NC 828-838-2428

First Presbyterian Church 107 West Academy Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-6064

First United Methodist Church 601 N. Pink St. Cherryville, NC 704-435-6732

First Wesleyan Church 800 North Pink Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-6069

Free Saints Chapel Church 813 Self Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-0949

Gospel Way Baptist Church 3904 Tryon Courthouse Rd. Cherryville, NC 866-356-3219

Legacy Church 805 Self Street Cherryville, NC 704-457-9615

Living Word Ministries 306 East Academy Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-3213

Marys Grove United Methodist Church 1223 Marys Grove Church Rd Cherryville, NC 704-435-5544

Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church 235 A.W. Black Street Waco, NC 704-435-8842

Mt. Zion Baptist Church 112 Mt. Zion Church Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-9636

North Brook Baptist Church 7421 Flay Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-4471

Oak Grove AME Zion Church 542 Flint Hill Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-3687

Oak Grove Baptist Church 219 Tot Dellinger Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-3053

Revival Tabernacle 1104 Delview Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-4073

Rudisill Chapel AME Zion Church 417 South Mountain Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-5621

Second Baptist Church 201 Houser Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-9657

Shady Grove Baptist Church 3240 Tryon Courthouse Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-9605

St. John’s Lutheran Church 310 West Church Street Cherryville, NC 704-435-9264

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church 1203 St. Mark’s Church Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-5941

Victory Life Assembly of God 1655 Shelby Highway Cherryville, NC 704-435-5539 Waco Baptist Church 262 N. Main Street Waco, NC 704-435-9311

Washington Missionary Baptist Church 1920 Stony Point Road Waco, NC 704-435-3138

Word of Faith Ministry 306 Doc Wehunt Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-5560

Zion Hill Baptist Church 3460 Zion Hill Road Cherryville, NC 704-435-3355

Bill

From Page 1

Taylor Swift tickets or the hottest new iPhone for sale.

Lobbyists and advocates of expanding the state’s Medicaid program were jammed into a hallway, hoping to get inside the room where something, after more than a decade of waiting, might start to happen.

State House committees were set to discuss House Bill 76, Access to Healthcare Options, which could create a pathway for hundreds of thousands of low-income North Carolinians to receive health coverage. The potential recipients are largely low-income workers who earn too much to qualify for the program as it is currently structured. But if North Carolina pulled down federal dollars that other states do, they could qualify and be added to the Medicaid rolls.

The program, as is, mostly covers children from families with low incomes, some of their parents, people with disabilities and seniors with limited financial means. For many low-income workers, health insurance can be out of reach because they earn too little to qualify for subsidies available through the federal health insurance online marketplace.

Rep. Donny Lambeth, the Republican from Winston-Salem who is the primary sponsor of the bill, said it’s time for North Carolina to get off the list of 12 states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion. The issue has been a political flashpoint in North Carolina since the Republican-led General Assembly voted in 2013 to reject the portion of President Barack Obama’s hallmark Affordable Care Act that makes expansion possible.

“North Carolina would become the 39th state,”

Lambeth told the House Health Committee Tuesday morning. “We’ve learned from other states, we had hearings in this room that brought in a number of other states.”

Lambeth argued that since North Carolina moved the Medicaid program to a managed care regimen in 2021, it has resulted in more budget predictability and efficiency than when Medicaid was operated as a feefor-service program.

“We have a good system now,” Lambeth said. “It’s been working for a while.”

After just 18 minutes, with little discussion, the bill passed the health committee with only a handful of opposing votes. A similar scene unfolded in a House finance committee in the afternoon, where the entire discussion took less than 15 minutes, with no opposing votes.

Medicaid expansion –after a 10-year wait – seems to be breezing through the state House of Representatives.

The biggest challenge

Notice of Public Hearing

Notice is hereby given that the Cherryville City Council will meet on Monday, March 13, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. at the Cherryville Community Building located at 106 S Jacob Street to hold a Public Hearing in consideration of a Zoning Map Amendment for Parcels 158034, 158072, 158038, 158037 and 307416. The properties are currently located within the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction of the City of Cherryville and it has been requested to be relinquished to the Gaston County Zoning Jurisdiction.

For more information, please contact Zoning Administrator Alex Blackburn at 704-435-1705 or at ablackburn@cityofcherryville.com

CE (2/22 & 3/1/2023)

Legal Notice

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF GASTON

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS OF BILLY HUGH YOUNG

Having qualified as Executrix of the Estate of Billy Hugh Young, deceased, of Gaston County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, firms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned at 106 North Cherry Street, Cherryville, North Carolina, on or before the 8th day of May, 2023, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms,and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 8th day of February, 2023.

Janet Martin King

Executrix

Counsel for the Estate: PALMER E. HUFFSTETLER, JR.

ATTORNEY AT LAW

106 North Cherry Street Cherryville, NC 28021

Telephone: 704-435-4907

CE (2/08, 15, 22 & 3/01/2023)

LEGAL NOTICE

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF GASTON

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS

Having qualified on 10th day of December, 2022 as Executrix of the Estate of CARYL B. AUSTELL; AKA, CARYL BEAM AUSTELL, deceased, of Gaston County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, firms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned, at McIntyre Elder Law in Shelby, NC on or before the May 1st, 2023 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms, and corporations indebted to the said estate to please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 1st day of February, 2023.

Elizabeth Austell Shuford, Executrix

Estate of: Caryl B. Austell; aka, Caryl Beam Austell Counsel for the Estate McINTYRE ELDER LAW

233 E. Graham Street Shelby, NC 28150

CE (2/1, 08, 15 & 22/2023) now will be getting the Senate on board.

No work requirement

Lambeth and another primary sponsor Rep. Donna White (R-Clayton) have been at the forefront of other Republican-generated bills to expand Medicaid in the 2017, 2019 and 2021 sessions. There’s a noticeable difference in the latest rendition, which drew broad interest in the committee meetings on Tuesday – there is no proposed work requirement for new program beneficiaries. That had been a caveat that most Republican-led states tried to enact in conjunction with expansion programs. But federal judges have consistently blocked states from creating work requirements for Medicaid. The federal legislation that created Medicaid in 1965 defines the program as an entitlement, open to everyone who falls in the coverage category.

During the Trump administration, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services moved to approve states’ requests for adding work requirements, but the Biden administration has generally frowned on such efforts.

Advocates have long argued that most of the people who would gain Medicaid coverage under expansion are already working. They have held up people like child care workers, farmers, ministers and others who earn lower wages in companies and jobs that don’t provide health benefits as the primary beneficiaries. The bill would include people earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which translates to $19,391 for an individual or $33,064 for a family of three.

“Most of these people who will qualify are actually working,” Lambeth said. “They just can’t afford health care.”

For others who are not working, House Bill 76 requires the state Department of Commerce to collaborate with the state Department of Health and Human Services to “create a seamless, statewide, comprehensive workforce development program,” that will be known as NC Health Works.

“I bet you hear that every day in your district that people, employers, small businesses can’t get enough workers,” Lambeth said. “We do need to figure out the magic behind helping individuals who actually would qualify for this program, potentially improve themselves.”

The initiative put forward by Lambeth duplicates the strategy taken by Montana when it expanded Medicaid. Lambeth said members of a North Carolina Medicaid study committee that met last year “really liked” that model. The Montana program helped match its new Medicaid recipients who were unemployed with job training and employment opportunities. That excluded students, caregivers, disabled people or beneficiaries in drug treatment programs.

In Montana, about 13,000 people participated in that state’s job program, and 72 percent got a job once they finished employment training, according to a report generated by the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. Health care professions accounted for seven of the top 10 jobs that people in the training program pursued, according to one finding.

Hospitals give, get

One stumbling block over the past decade for expansion was the question of who would pick up the tab for the additional recipients.

The Affordable Care Act stipulates that the federal government would pick up 90 percent of the cost for the new beneficiaries, while states need to cover the other 10 percent.

Estimates for the North Carolina portion of the coverage range from $224 million in the first year to about $700 million by the fourth year. One section of House Bill 76 would change the way hospitals get paid by the federal government for caring for Medicaid patients. The legislation would use the federal Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program, which is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and reimburses hospitals at a rate closer to the actual cost of care. State health officials say the program would bump up reimbursement for hospitals across the state by about $3 billion per year, but in exchange for North Carolina enacting the program, hospitals would foot the bill for the extra beneficiaries.

Hospitals have long complained that they were already footing the bill for uninsured patients who showed up at their doors. Many hospital representatives say the health care facilities are now willing to pick up the state’s share – as long as the stabilization program is enacted.

“In 2021, Novant Health provided over $727 million in unpaid Medicare coverage and over $111 million in Medicaid coverage to patients,” a Novant Health spokesperson said in an email to NC Health News. “We support the passing of the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program (HASP) to ensure hospitals have the financial fortitude to care for Medicaid patients.”

‘Counting on you’

Among health care lobbyists and advocates, the excitement over the House bill was palpable. Many advocates wore red for Valentine’s Day, accessorizing their outfits with stickers picturing a large red heart and reading, “Love thy neighbor. Expand Medicaid!”

Abby Emanuelson, head of Care4Carolina said that while the bill only received about a half hours’ worth of discussion – total – in the two hearings, the day’s outcome was the result of “numerous years” of work and “lots of Zoom minutes.”

“Coalitions have been talking to these members, really getting a lot of good conversations going and, of course, as we heard from Rep. Lambeth today, he’s been talking to his colleagues for a number of years as well about this,” Emanuelson said.

For the past decade, the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce has declined to take a position on Medicaid expansion, but this year a number of other politically conservative and business-friendly groups have endorsed the policy, Emanuelson noted. She said that includes local chambers of commerce from metro areas and rural counties, and multiple boards of county commissioners.

Erica Palmer Smith, who preceded Emanuelson at Care4Carolina, pointed out that other states that have expanded have seen economic benefit.

“Studies have shown that states increase jobs whenever they pass Medicaid expansion,” said Palmer Smith, who now leads the advocacy group NC Child. “Louisiana saw an additional 18,000 jobs, Colorado saw an additional 30,000 jobs.

“I think this is going to be a tremendous benefit for all of those local economies, for their small businesses, for the employees themselves,” Palmer Smith added.

The biggest challenge to enacting House Bill 76 lies on the other side of the legislative building. While the Senate overwhelmingly passed Medicaid expansion last year, their bill included measures to overhaul the state’s laws limiting hospital competition and also included measures to loosen restrictions on advanced practice nurses, such as nurse practitioners and nurse anesthetists. That bill never received a hearing in the House.

“The title is ‘Access to Care,’ yet it doesn’t do anything to increase access in terms of facilities or personnel,” Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters last week about this year’s bill. “It’s not the bill we need in North Carolina expanding Medicaid.”

Lambeth said it was a coincidence that Tuesday’s committee votes occurred on Valentine’s Day. Nonetheless, he shared with his colleagues a holiday rhyme sent to him by a constituent.

“‘Roses are red, violets are blue, our neighbors need affordable health care, and that’s counting on you,’” Lambeth read. “That pretty much says it all.”