In 1939, soon after graduating from Davidson College, Williams attended a gathering in Amsterdam of some 1500 Christian youth from over 70 nations and representing a multitude of denominations.  He was deeply moved by the worship and fellowship and the reality of the breadth of the world-wide church.  Following the event, he and three other friends, also delegates at the gathering from the Southern Presbyterian Church, toured by bicycles over much of Europe.  The ship Williams took to Europe, the S. S. Athenia, and the one on which he returned to the States, the S. S. Volendam, were both torpedoed by German submarines within months after he disembarked from them

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