Listened to my last meeting on the phone Sep 2014. We were due to go to the international assembly in Oct, An elder gave a talk about obedience to Jehovah, someone mentioned about the international & he said "I was just thinking that myself, are we being obedient & attending" words to that effect. I put the phone down, never listened in or attended a meeting again. I didn't go to the assembly, even though we had booked & paid for our flights (most of you know why). Any way the point is I was disgusted, there were many bro/sis who would not be able to afford to go or cope with the crowds. There will be ones that will still be paying the debt off cause they paid with credit cards & yet when they got there they were asked for contributions. The strain that would put on their everyday family life trying to survive all for 3 days, & they go on about the expence of xmas.
Can you even begin to imagine what it would be like for the ones who didn't go, how the others would have rubbed salt into their wounds & how that would leaving them feeling because they had let God down, they weren't obedient. I find the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.