Ball of Fire in Field and White Lights Darting in the Sky

I never knew where to report this-so it's from a long time ago. 
Back in 1988 my family was woken up in our house because of a bright light.  We went outside-my mom, dad, and myself.  We lived in the country.  Up in the field from our house was what looked like a ball of fire-or like the sun had fallen into the field.  There was so much light that it looked like daylight in the field.  My parents are huge skeptics-but they couldn't explain this one.  
I'll never forget it as long as I live. NOTHING in this world looks like what we saw.  We never spoke about it again.
Also, there may have been one other time I saw something-but I'm less certain about this event.  I was driving Hwy 65 in Missouri toward Springfield, Missouri.  In the sky was a white light that would dart around really fast.  Apparently, I'm not the only one that saw this because people were actually pulling over on the side of the road to look at the sky-the people driving slowed down to like 10 mph.  It was just a bright white light that would dark around-I don't know if this was something else or what.  This would have been in the Summer of 2003.
Witness indicates that date is approximate.  PD