Dateline: 21 Feb. 2009, Colombo Sri Lanka, by war correspondent Elder Dosdall

After two days of remarkable uplift in the Bangalore Mission Senior Couples Conference in which we heard marvelous stories of courage and devotion and were instructed in strategies for establishing the church in India and Sri Lanka, we were sitting in the lobby of the Colombo Hilton chatting with fellow missionaries about 9:30pm when the lights went off. This is normal in India though it had not happened yet this week in Sri Lanka. Within a few minutes the hotel was up again on backup generators, though security personnel were still scurrying about with some urgency. During the break in the conversation we decided it was time to retire to our room on the twelfth floor, where we settled down to read for a while. When we heard what sounded like firecrackers outside (though we were unaware of any local festival in progress) I went to the window where it was immediately apparent that the materiel in the sky going over the hotel was anti-aircraft tracers and the searchlights were frantically looking for something. We ducked behind the bed and Sister Dosdall suggested it might be a good time to pray. The thud of an explosion was our cue to retreat to the central hallway away from windows. There soon came an announcement to turn off lights in our room and proceed to the basement, which everyone did in an orderly fashion. When we took census of our missionary group, there was some concern over three couples: Elder Wood had been sick in his room with the flu and had not even been able to attend the conference meetings (though he is a retired Secret Service agent who could likely assess the gravity of the situation). Elder Mills, of the one missionary couple stationed in Sri Lanka, had gone to get Elder Wood some medication and was out on the street. Elder and Sister McKinney, a seventy-year-old couple stationed with us in Chennai, soon appeared dripping wet in their swimsuits. They had been outside in the pool when it all broke loose. During the next hour while we waited in the basement, the hotel staff kept us informed as they received news. Apparently the defense system (conspicuously present on the street in this neighborhood of government buildings, business centers, and port, with armed soldiers in sandbag emplacements on every corner) had detected the approach of three light planes flying low beneath the radar and had blacked out the city. The anti-aircraft barrage had taken down two planes, one which has dropped a bomb at a government building two blocks from the hotel, and a second plane at the airport. Though the news reports the past week were all about government troops finally mopping up the last LTTE (Tamil Tiger) strongholds on the Jaffna Peninsula at the opposite end of the island, this apparently was not the whole story. Today's (Sri Lankan govt.) newspaper report does not mention a third plane. After it was all over, we got a good night's sleep. The airport was back to normal today and this last paragraph is written in the peaceful sanctuary of our Chennai apartment after a comfortable flight home, on which we (equally unexpectedly) got bumped up to first class.